In Which a Game Is Played
by Ad-Idem
Summary: When a nuclear explosion nearly destroys the Outback, the world's nations are sent reeling. Little do any of them realize that this is only the beginning of the game.
1. The Man at the End of the Tunnel

**Right:** Greetings, folks! My name is Right. As in I'm Right. My partner on this joint account is Left. As in she's Left. This is going to be the first of our joint fanfics that we will be publishing through this account both out of the sake of our equal adoration of everything Hetalia and … being sadistic little authors. This story is intense, and only the beginning of a huge arc of stories, but I hope you all get as much enjoyment out of them as we do ;-)  
I now turn this over to LEFT.

**Left: **WHY THANK YOU, RIGHT. Being Left makes me that more awesome, lemme tell you. But that doesn't matter at the moment. What DOES matter is what you're about to read. This first part is written by yours truly, and it's just the beginning. Prologue, if you will. So basically what I'm saying is that it probably won't make any sense at all. NO WORRIES! The next part is written by Right, and you'll almost totally forget about this part until it's important because Right's handiwork is awesome like that.  
SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADIEU here is the prologue to our AU, which we have dubbed, "State of Mind".

**Characters: **Oh, boy. N. & S. Italy, Germany, Japan, America, England, France, Russia, China, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Greece, Monaco, Turkey, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Egypt, Seychelles, Canada, Cuba, Sealand, Seborga, Wy, Australia, Prussia, Ireland, N. Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Vatican City, OC!N. Korea, Tibet, Thailand, Vietnam, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Bostwanna, Congo, OC!Mexico, OC!New Zealand, OC!American States, OC!South Africa, OC!Israel, OC!India, OC!Philippines (More to be revealed)**  
Pairings:** Austria/Hungary, one-sided!Prussia/Hungary, mentions of OC!Israel/America and Vietnam/America  
**Rating:** PG-13, will be M in later chapters  
**Warnings:** Language, future violence, terrible stereotyping (particularly between American states), internet terrorism  
**Disclaimer: **We own nothing and pretend to own nothing.

* * *

_We've all been living beneath a veil of wool. For as long as there have been land owned by humans, we have been lied to. Maybe from even before! Now, I know what you're thinking: such a complicated lie, so deep and ancient, surely we'd know about it now, right?_

_Wrong. Very wrong._

_The proof of what I'm about to tell you can be found scattered throughout history. In fact, if you were to even bother squinting at history books, the truth would be so blindingly obvious, you'd wonder how you lived so long without knowing it without someone, somewhere, figuring it out._

_True, there has been some few – like me, for example._

_The others, the ones who truly know, normally are in on the deceit as well. They have been sworn into secrecy, a life-time condition of the disease _zipper-lipped._ Those with deep pockets have their silence bought - I'm here to tell you that MY silence can NOT be bought!

* * *

_

That wall of text above this is an exert from my very first note I sent to all of you. Since then you've all found out the truth about our nations, our countries, our provinces, hell, even our states.

And, just like me, you've been angry. Angry about the silence, angry about the secrets! The whole world practically owned by human embodiments! What are governments for then? Why do we even have presidents, prime ministers, people who control large bodies of land?

Why have any kind of leadership at all when you have living, breathing nations running around?

Obviously I can't answer these questions – although you might be able to, I'm not sure. I'm not arrogant enough to believe I understand these kinds of things. I did, however, offer an alternative to vent these frustrations, and I sent you a list.

A list of the people – if they can be called as such – that are the actual countries personified in living, breathing, human bodies. To their names was a price. Some people have called them bounties – I have not denied the similarities, but hope you see past this for what it really is:

A very simple Game.

A Game which, my friends, my allies, my fighters of arms, has of January 1st, 2011, begun.

Happy Hunting – I will be keeping score.

Sincerely,

The Man at the End of the Tunnel.

* * *

_Please Review~_


	2. The Third Element: 1 of 3

**Right: **It's your friendly, neighborhood fanfic author, Right! And I apologize ahead of time because this is going to be a ... very long ride with me. I took on the first "arc" of the story which involves (for now) mostly Australia, Wy, America, some of Canada, some of England, and some introductions to OC!American states. I know a lot of people have "states" or prefer not to have the states or OCs inserted into stories, but these states will NOT be taking the place of the established series nations. They're also not in for kicks, but telling you what they have to do with the game will spoil too much, yes? Please just give us the benefit of the doubt, is all I'm asking.

* * *

The Element: Part One of Three

The arid land rolled out before the herd as it cautiously crossed the oceanic mainland. Timidly, they brought themselves forward in search of food and water, as was the daily routine. The red kangaroos moved with little commotion throughout the mainland until their ears detected a rumble from far off. Alerted by the large female at the forefront of the troop, they came to a hasty stop and glanced in the direction of the noise.

By the time the earth began to shake beneath their feet, they had taken off, scattering across the dry earth as a cry of pure delight broke into the air followed by the loud growling of a sputtering engine.

The yellow Forrester glowed in the heavy summer light as it barreled over the dunes, leaving the driver and passenger near airborne for a few thrilling moments.

"ACE!" the darkly tanned Aussie in control of the wheel laughed as his bum met with the seat yet again. He grinned wildly at the paint splattered girl beside him. "Would ya look at that boomer over there? Leaving all these ladies behind! His blood's worth bottling."

"You almost hit him," the girl reasoned, turning her own grinning face back to her older brother. "You trying to Out-Aussie yourself today, Cody?"

The brother smirked at his little sister with a rather crooked smile and shook his head before looking forward yet again. "I'll tell ya, Sheila, there's not a soul in Australia that can Out-Aussie_ me!"_

He was right, of course. They both knew it.

Cody Walters was so much more than the thick skinned man of the Outback that he appeared to be to so many others. He was a country within a man, the living representation of the entire country which consumed the continent of Australia. However, just because he wasn't a man did not mean he didn't enjoy life as one.

Beside him, the young Principality of Wy herself was attempting to not be quite as enthused about their high speed rampages over the driest area of her older brother's continent. In her young mind, she was only there for one thing.

"So, before we test out your newest roo bar, let's talk about that driveway."

"Crikey, Sheila!" Australia released in a harsh laugh, not even bothering to glance sideways at the young girl. "I made you your own nation, why would I have to do that?"

"Because I wouldn't 'ave asked to be recognized as my own nation if you 'ad just stopped being so lazy and gave me a driveway from the beginning you bludger!" she cried out, earning a gasp from the driver of the vehicle. She groaned and knew it would probably be best if she gave up on the subject for the day.

Shifting shoulders, the seemingly demon possessed koala on the man's back gave her a devilish glare until its owner reached up and patted it on the head. "Bludger, now, there's no worries! She didn't mean anything by it, did you, Wy?"

Frowning, the girl looked back to the stretch of land ahead. "Are we far enough into the Never Never for your taste, Cody?"

"Wy, you're just going to 'ave to learn to appreciate every inch of the continent," he retorted. "Nothing's going to happen to two nations in the middle of the Outback. Nothing I can't handle, mind you. We can nut out the driveway thing later. In an office or something of the sorts."

"You're never in your office."

"I know, bloody waste that I have one," he grinned before narrowing his eyes.

On Cody's shoulder, the koala let out a strange heave and dug its nails into his shirt, bringing Cody to tilt up his long nose and take in the air himself. He scowled and turned an accusing eye to his younger sister, a sly smile on his face as he took a hand off the wheel and wiggled a finger.

"Well now, who opened their lunch?"

"I didn't blow wind," she hissed in return.

"Well, what's that smell?"

The two looked from each other back to the land in front of them just in time for a collective gasp as a large clump of furry matter rather suddenly came into view. In unison, they released a high pitched cry as Australia uselessly attempted to swerve away from the large conglomerate.

The wheels of the Subaru rotated in the air as the two nations found themselves careening into a tight, uncontrolled circle. Wy felt her heart leap into her throat and remained lodge there, keeping her from breathing as the world spun and spun and spun around them.

All sound around the principality was muffled, although she knew that her bigger brother was screaming something out at her in the midst of a long slew of profanities, particularly short clipped four-lettered ones.

Finally, by some miracle, Australia regained control and slammed his foot so hard on the break that it threatened to break. He hissed with the screeching engine and began to recall that something wet was running down his cheek.

He touched the side of his face and scowled as he looked to the fingers to see blood. Bludger had came insanely close to digging his little koala claws into the driver's eyes.

Wy suddenly smacked her brother over the head, knocking off his hat and earning a growl from Bludger. "You just about killed us!" she proclaimed.

"Aye," he chuckled. "I did!"

Before the girl could respond or smack him again, Cody opened the door and stepped out of the vehicle, ignoring her cries as he walked over the shifted earth and started toward the furry mass which had knocked them off course. His thick brows wedged together in concern as he worried that he was about to come across signs of poaching again. Damn bastards didn't know when to say enough was enough.

"Don't walk away from me just because I'm right!" Sheila cried before tumbling out of the window of her passenger door. "And why haven't you gotten the damn door fixed yet?"

"Because I figured there wasn't much use for paying for a little bingle," he responded casually as the tan girl reached his side. He pointed to the earth, a frown disturbingly growing on his features as he identified the strange alignment of the ground. "You see that?"

Wy made a face before looking at the earth. Her golden eyes flickered with curiosity as she noticed how the rocks had seemed to raise up in circular arrangements, like huge permanent ripples in a pond. She turned around, realizing that for miles and miles, as far as they could see, they weren't even looking at half of the Aussie had pointed out.

"What in heaven is that?" she asked curiously before looking over to see that her brother was crossing the unsettled ground rather dangerously. "'Ey! Answer one of my questions for once!"

"I always answer your questions, Little Sister," Cody responded as he made his way to the mass of what he could now see were dead roos. "You just never like the answers."

Removing his hat and sitting on his haunches, Australia thoroughly examined the massacred bodies, laid out and flung across each other in a morbid pile. It made his heart ache to see his native species so devastated. Still, Cody had been there first hand for hundreds of discoveries of human brutality.

This … this was something different.

"You alright?"

Shifting his green eyes over to his side, Cody saw that his young sibling was already by his side. He smirked to himself before standing up and shaking his head. "If these are among my life's greatest disasters, Wy, I am a fortunate bastard," he laughed. "Still, it's odd."

Before Wy could question the statement, he reached forward and touched the masses, his eyes narrowing as the skin beneath the torn fur seemed almost _elastic_ to the touch. And little to nothing was preventing him from stroking the bones within the bodies as he allowed his fingers to investigate further.

"They're …. Literally skin and bones, Sheila!" he proclaimed, receiving a high pitched chatter in his ear from a surprised Bludger. "It's like they're … e-something. Doovalacky."

"Emaciated?"

"That be right," he responded before turning to his little sister. Australia frowned at young Wy. "I have a feeling in my bones, Wy. It's not supposed to be like this. It's … this seems very wrong."

For once, the younger nation did not scoff or satirize her older brother. The Aussie was dead serious and she knew that for him to react with not so much as a flicker from his carefree disposition it had to be worse than bad. The feeling it left Sheila with was not a good feeling by any stretch of the imagination.

Suddenly, he looked forward, over past Wy's head and his green eyes widened horrifically. "What the hell?"

The young girl spun on her heels just in time to see in the horizon a black, spinning cloud, tremendous in size, rotating with frightening might. Within its clouds flashes of light—blue, white, red, green, almost every color imaginable it seemed—eerily tore into the distant skyline. The once hot, placid Aussie day suddenly seemed like something out of a _Wizard of Oz_ retelling from Hell.

Suddenly, the ground shook so violently that the Forrester began rocking from wheel to wheel.

They glanced to it for only a moment it seemed before a long screech, like the bellow of a frightened beast, drew their attentions back to the unnatural storm.

Cody gasped as he watched the earth in the distance buckling, ripples of rock jutting up into the air at frightening speed, the thick sandstorm flooding their way, and the unusual hiss of what sounded like _steam. _

Bludger let out an unnatural cry and crawled down into the back of his owner's shirt to hide.

"Sheila!" Australia cried out before scooping up the immobile girl and running away from the approaching rolls of steam, sand, and 'explosive' rock.

In utter shock, Wy curled up into her brother's chest as he took off, her eyes shutting almost instinctively as the raging sandstorm caught up with them first. Her fingers curled into her brother's shirt, her heart once more lodged in her throat when something even more unusual began to happen.

The heat got to her first as she felt it radiating from her brother's chest. She reached up and felt his skin in the V of his shirt just as her brother's pace slowed and began to stumble. What she felt shocked her, as Cody's body began to feel like a furnace and she could have sworn that his skin was _boiling_.

Despite knowing the risks of doing so in a sandstorm, she tipped her chin up and dared to open her eyes, looking at her brother's face. Her heart skipped.

"Cody?"

The nation's face was a horrible, twisted combination of shock and pain as his green eyes, dilated into tiny emerald dots, rolled into the back of his head and he suddenly dropped, flinging both her and Bludger forward as he did so.

"CODY! AUSTRALIA!" Wy screamed as she immediately stood up, immediately regretting the cry as a mouthful of sand and dirt flew down her windpipe. She choked, covering her face with the long pink sleeve of her smock.

Bending over, she scooped up the frightened Bludger who, in an unusual manner, cried out and desperately clung to the arm of someone outside of his own owner. Wy bit her lip and forced herself through the intense gusts of loose earth until she felt her foot hit against a soft, _hot _form.

Releasing a small cry from her throat, she fell to her knees and tightened the fabric over her face to better see through it. It was indeed Australia's form she had kicked, but the man was face down in the ground and not moving.

* * *

He sat back in the office chair with an uncomfortable frown. The leather was cold and, while most people could appreciate that no one had been sitting in his chair, Alfred F. Jones had always preferred _warmth._ He left that silly cold nonsense to more Northern people, even if people could easily point out that Al had some rather cold territory of his own.

Mr. America was none too pleased with the pile of paper work which had accumulated on his desk. Then again, he supposed that is what happens when a nation decided that he should only have to fill out Domestic Policy papers once a month, leaving the rest of each month dedicated either to International Affairs or, more likely, _personal time._

No, no. The seventh of the month was the most dreaded time of each month.

_"Why did you choose the seventh?" his twin once asked in complete puzzlement.  
"So it'd never land on Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, Mattie. Duh," had been the retort._

He frowned as he glanced over the desk and began to rub his chin. Did he really only use this desk once a month? He pondered that, reflecting on what all he had spent November Eighth through December Sixth doing. There was a World Conference, or was there? Maybe he just met with some of his fellow countrymen. It was hard to tell. He certainly spent at least one weekend fly fishing that much was for sure.

There was a cautious knock and Al looked up to see the old maid at his door. He grinned cheekily and stood up.

"Sylvia! Do you want some help? I know how hard it is for you to reach the tops of these old shelves," the nation said quickly, preparing to bolt out of his chair as soon as possible to help the petite, graying woman.

She looked at him with a bit of a timid smile and shook her head. "No, no, Mr. Jones. You really shouldn't."

"I would _love _to! It's the least I can do!" he said before releasing his signature laugh.

"No, I mean you _shouldn't, _Mr. Jones," she said a little harsher, but in that grandmother sort of chiding. "Young Mr. Jones told me today to make sure that you didn't," she coughed before doing her best to repeat, "'Attempt to excuse yourself from your national priorities.'"

"Young Mr. Jones?" Al said, his face twisting into a small pout. "Which one?"

Like he had to ask.

"Samuel," a lofty voice answer before a young man, looking no more than seventeen even behind his thick lensed bifocals, entered the room with a scowl on his face. To anyone else, the young man would have looked like the younger brother to Alfred Jones, sharing his wheat colored hair and peculiar, deep blue eyes.

He crossed his arms as he got to the rug in the center of the room, ignoring Sylvia as she scurried out. Sam tilted his head to the side, his mouth twitching as he locked eyes with Alfred.

"Have you even looked at the papers?"

"I've seen them."

"Individually?"

"That's impossible," Al groaned as he waved his hand over the desk. "It's piled almost up to my eyes, Penns! I mean, _hell's bells!_ It's never been this high!"

"Oh, that's the smallest it's been in six months, Dad," the statesman retorted. "I told you to get started last night."

"I still have all day."

"It's already noon."

Alfred's nose twitched like a nervous rabbit before a sly smile came to his face. "Oh, is it? I think that calls for a lunch break then. What do you say? You and me head over to the mall and we'll test the foods in the food court? Besides, Cali told me that the newest _Saw_ is being released and—"

"No."

With a groan, Al waved his hands dramatically. _"Sammy!"_

"Don't you 'Sammy' me!" the boy said with a glare in his eyes directed at his father. "You do this every month, Dad. For Christ's sake! Sign the papers! I've looked over every last one of them twice, and then had Connecticut look over them. You _just have to sign!"_

"Penns!"

"Don't you 'Penns' me either!"

Slamming his hands down on the desk, Al looked like he was about to get up however, as his son's eyes bore into him, he looked around on the desk instead and smirked as he saw the navy cup with carved stars. He grabbed a pen out of its collection and held it toward the young man. "Fine, you're helping me sign."

"Hell, no," Pennsylvania scowled before looking at his father expectantly. "Maybe you should reconsider asking the family _lawyer_ about doing something highly illegal."

"Oh, it's not illegal," Alfred said with a roll of his eyes. "When your sister, Illinois, racketeered in the nineteen-thirties: _that _was illegal. You signing some papers in my name isn't illegal. Beside, you're just a representative of me, it's not like I'm asking Sylvia to do it."

"It's illegal," the boy responded with a hint of anger behind his voice. He was not happy.

Al was not happy either.

"There's no way I can fill out these papers, Penns," he said flatly. "It is impossible. Not just humanly impossible, but just plain _impossible._ It's too much. And I don't even know what the hell I'm signing."

"You would if you glanced over them," Pennsylvania sighed before walking over to the side of his father's chair and harshly taking the first page off of a stack and whipping it down in front of him. "This is over the reinstatement of the California border patrol."

"Some border patrol," Al snorted. "I got through it with a basket of avocados in my backseat two months ago. They didn't even ask me about it."

"Yes, well, that would be why you're reinstating your support to decrease the patrol," Penns responded before grabbing his father's hand holding the pen and directing it to the dotted line. "All you have to do is put your John Hancock there."

Al snorted. "Y'know, he was such a funny guy—"

"Yes, I know. Sign it."

They glared at each other.

Finally, with a defeated groan, Alfred lowered his head and muttered under his breath before signing away on the little piece of paper. The pressure of Samuel's eyes never left the back of his neck, even as he finished and placed the paper in the empty tray for finished work.

"Feel better?" Pennsylvania asked.

"No."

The statesman stared at his father before shaking his head and grabbing the next piece of paper and slapping it on the desk. He had the sickening feeling that he might have to do this with all seven of the stacks. He could only be thankful that so many of them were just thick packets this time around.

"Now, this one happens to be over the federal budget's, how to put it, _trimmings_ going to Florida," Pennsylvania said with a bit of cynicism attached to his voice. "Arkansas pointed it out to us and filed up this report. Basically you're signing to prove that we're not letting so much tax money go to the habitat of a single turtle in the Silver Springs Zoo."

"Oh, wait, no, I approved this one," Al said with a tap of his pen on his lips.

"What?"

"Yeah, I definitely approved that one. Florida took me to see the turtle," he smirked. "Cute thing. You know it's endangered?"

Pennsylvania stared at his father for a moment before letting an inaudible noise escape his throat. When he caught the look in his father's eyes, he recognized this game immediately and scowled. "No, you're not tricking me into signing your paperwork again!" he hissed. "Try a new game."

"Aw, dammit."

The two were interrupted as a knocking on the door frame brought the two to look up.

In the doorway was a familiar face, another boy appearing no more than seventeen, only the likeness was not so uncanny. His face, more rounded it seem, was drawn into a knowing smirk and his eyes, more icy than either Pennsylvania or America's, were half closed lazily. He laughed at them as he trotted in, his boots clicking against the old hard wood floors.

"I thought you'd still be in here!" he laughed. He then paused and became stiff as a pole before saluting the nation.

Al grinned from ear to ear. "York!" he got up and reached over the desk, pulling his other son into a bear hug, causing Pennsylvania to release an irritated noise yet again.

"Hey, Pops," New York responded before shoving off of him and rubbing his new buzz cut.

"What are you doing here?" the father asked with an encouraging smile. "You on leave for the week?"

"Yeah, I told you I'd be coming down in my last letter," he responded before looking over the mess of the desk. "Which, I'm guessing, is somewhere in this mess. Have you two even started yet?"

"Yes," Al responded defensively, picking up the single sheet in the tray and waving it in front of York.

"Hardly," Penns seethed, rubbing his temples.

"Well, we can't do anything fun until you finish, Pops," York said with a sigh, his stomach interrupting the mood as it suddenly growled. "Oh, shit. I'm starved. Do you know if George is cooking anything big?"

"Georgia isn't in this weekend," Pennsylvania muttered before adding something almost incoherent about how no one came in until Dad was done with his paperwork.

His mouth curling into a frown, York shook his head and then looked to his father who was reluctantly settling back into the leather chair. "Well, Pops, the only thing I can tell you is that no one can help you out until you finish this," he said before looking to Pennsylvania with an icy eye and nodding for him to head out the door. "So, let's see if I can inspire any work ethic straight out of West Point."

Knowing, but deciding he no longer cared, about what was going to happen, Pennsylvania threw up his arms and took out the door.

"What a team, Alfred and Millard at it again!" he growled before disappearing down the hall.

Al was quiet for a moment before he finally locked eyes with York. They stared at each other before throwing their heads back and laughing.

* * *

**Right: **Okay, I know! I know! I write MONSTERS. I can't apologize enough. But this is the biggest of the three parts to this particular arc, I promise! Then it gets easier. Just ... important stuff.

I cannot tell you ENOUGH how much it would mean to get some feedback! So ... Please spread some love X3


	3. The Third Element: 2 of 3

**[edit]** The notes section of this chapter has been adjusted thanks to some help from **Wirewolf**

_Special thanks to _**Alana-kittychan **_for the review last chapter! (As well as _**ilikepie457**_ the chapter before, but I'm a terrible author and somehow managed to leave it out of my last update! Sorry ^ ^ ; )_

**Right:**Sorry for the lapse of time between updates. Busybusybusy. Left and you readers have every right to smack me upside the head for not only making such long story arcs but taking so long to post them!

* * *

The Element: Part Two of Three

The military response to the hundreds of alerts from concerned citizens throughout both the Northern Territory and Western Australia were quick and overwhelming. Entire settlements found themselves quickly evacuated by the ADF as they scrambled both to clear the area and to work on some sort of understanding of what was going on.

Worse yet, the lower ranking soldiers found themselves in an undefined frenzy on the part of the Western Premier who declared that the prime directive was not so much saving the area, what there was left to save, as it was to look for a bloke by the name of Cody Walters who was last seen on a joyous venture into the bush.

It was entering the sixth hour since the explosive and unexplainable phenomenon had taken place and no one knew how much longer they could risk looking for someone who, if the bodies of some discovered carcasses were any indication, was vaporized in the blast.

They barreled through the landscape until, in a cry almost silenced by the sandstorm enveloping the army Jeep, a scout alerted them to a figure moving up ahead.

A tiny frame was ahead of them, a ripped pink cloth covering her mouth as another covered the mouth of a tiny koala latched onto her neck. The rest of the article was wrapped around the head of a dark skinned man she was dragging to the best of her ability.

They rushed to meet her.

* * *

"Just once you should have all this done like the night before, completely shock him," York snickered as he signed the document on his lap _Alfred F. Jones_ and ended it with a star. He looked over the signature again and let out a low laugh. "Oh, man. Pops, your signature …"

"Like fine wine has only improved over time?" Alfred said with a broad smile as he put his signature on the pad before him. "And, yeah, I've thought of doing that before, but have never really gotten around to it."

"Well, you have been only doing it for _two-hundred_ and some years now," the soldier responded before flinging his packet into the finished stack which was almost filled to the brim. "Oh, look, only two left."

"You mind getting them?" Al attempted.

"Aw, geeze, would you look at that?" York whined before wiggling his fingers. "I've got a cramp. I can't."

"Oh, fine," the nation muttered before cracking his knuckles and looking down at the papers on his desk. "I don't see what the point of having fifty kids is if I can't abuse my father privileges from time to time." He shook his head and began to sign the document without even reading it. "Sometimes I'd swear you guys are ungrateful."

The boy merely raised his brows to this and then kicked his army issued boots onto the now cleared edge of the desk. He leaned back and smiled to himself with his signature smug grin.

"So who all is going to be at the plantation this weekend?"

"Uh, hopefully no one, I'm not going to be there," Al responded before flinging the paper over to the finished pile. "I'm spending the weekend in D.C."

"Seriously? Why?" York said with a sneer on his face. "You could come up to the Big Apple. I've got some new shows on Broadway."

Al paused and looked over the rim of his glasses. "Tickets?"

"Of course."

He grunted and made a clicking noise before signing the last document. "Can't, I seriously have to be in D.C. this weekend. I've been running around for months, only seen the Boss once and that was actually an accident, we just happened to both be invited to this thing in LA."

"The funeral?" York said with a smirk. "It was a senator, Pops. Why _wouldn't_ you both be invited?"

The nation gave him a testy look before sighing with relief. "Hmm. I have the feeling I should have read at least one line of this first."

"Why?"

"It was highlighted," Al responded before narrowing his eyes and squinting at the document. His mind was in so many other places at the moment that it took all of his concentration to keep his eyes on the highlighted line. It was why he nearly jumped out of his now appropriately warmed chair when the door slammed open.

Standing in the doorway was a younger boy, looking no more than twelve. His long, untamed hair curled around the frame of his face and threatened to block the view of his eyes which were dangerously magnified by his glasses.

"Ottawa?" York questioned with a tip of his head. "Shouldn't you be at Uncle Matt—"

"I'm _Jefferson," _the statesman responded with a petulant tone. "Cali's twin."

"Oh."

The child ignored his brother and instead rested his eyes on their father who was returning a rather expectant look to the child in the doorway. "Dad—"

"You can tell Penns I finished," Al responded before making a point to gracefully lay the last paper in the finished pile. "He can get his panties out of a wad now. Oh! And also tell him I did it completely on my own, York made sure of that." He ignored York's snorts.

Jefferson did not seem fazed. "It's not that, Dad," he said slowly. "We just received a call from the Secretary of State. They're mobilizing troops and sending aid immediately over to Australia."

Al blinked, his eyes spinning. "What? Excuse me? For what?"

"There was a subatomic reaction in the Outback," Jefferson said a little haughtily, pushing his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose. "They said to call you immediately and for you to head to Sydney."

"Sydney?" Al questioned, already up and grabbing his favorite jacket from the coat rack. "I should go with the Secretary to meet up with Cody—"

"We're sending you to Sydney because … Uncle Cody is in the hospital there," Jefferson said slowly. "Uncle Mattie has already taken off, and possibly Uncle Arthur, too."

By the time Jefferson had ended the announcement, Al had taken off down the hall.

* * *

Being debriefed on the situation felt almost as traumatizing as having witnessed the event for himself.

Canada shuttered and sank further into the jet's seat. It was not often that he took a personal jet, himself and his government finding that there was absolutely nothing wrong with a nation to ride with the people of his country. He had to get to Australia as soon as possible, however, and was fortunate to catch his Prime Minister on his way out.

"Well, the Americans have already begun deploying soldiers," one of the numerous men in black suits alerted the Prime Minister and, inadvertently, the near invisible nation in the red sweat shirt sitting beside him. "As part of the Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty."

Matthew frowned to himself. He knew that before they ever brought it up in the conversation.

In a strange sense—and by strange, Canada was thinking from the perspective of a human and not his 'kind'—they were a single family, these countries. New Zealand and Australia were blood related, of course, much like Canada and America were, but they were all under the British Empire's rearing at some point.

Canada knew that while his twin had long since been disowned by the family for his Revolution while Australia was found and 'claimed' by their father nation, America had been overly ecstatic when he met Australia in the First World War. Not long afterward, they began growing close ties both in diplomatic and sentimental senses.

Cody was a man of adventure and a love of his natural environments. Alfred enjoyed dangerous excursions and 'those funny things' the little brother said.

As the men left, the Prime Minister returned his gaze to the nation and frowned.

"We may withdraw some support if it turns out that this is, in fact, a nuclear attack," he said gently. "We have always shared good relations with Australia, but if it's a nuclear war we're looking at and the United States becomes involved with all of its nuclear warheads—"

"I know," Matthew responded with a tight frown. "Al is … notorious for thinking with his heart and not his head."

"It puts us in a dangerous position."

"I'll talk to America myself," Canada said as firmly as he could manage, hugging tighter to the bear in his arms. "For all the good it'll do…"

The polar bear looked up curiously. "Who are you?"

Matthew sighed, suddenly feeling even less secure with his plan. "I'm Canada."

* * *

Alfred stared at the window with a growl, ignoring as Samuel sat back down across from him with some coffee.

"It's a good thing you finished your paper work," the boy muttered before taking a sip. "Stop glaring at the window, we're about to take off again. Stopping in Los Angeles keeps us from, you know, running out of fuel and wrecking in the middle of the ocean. I hear that's bad for anyone, even a country."

America turned and faced the state. "Why are you coming? Isn't it supposed to be dangerous? Or something?"

"Because I know how you get," Pennsylvania sighed and revealed he was holding a second cup with that beautiful Starbucks label. "Here, it's your favorite. The caramel and chocolate one."

"It's only served around Christmas," Al said as he gently removed it from his son's hands. "But I guess it _is_ December isn't it?"

"We'll be in Australia soon enough," Pennsylvania responded. "York said he'd keep watch of the house in case anyone showed up. But I think he's really inviting some of his army buddies over to trash the place in a drunken rampage."

"That's my boy," Al responded before looking out the window and taking a sip just as they began to take off again.

* * *

Impatiently, the old nation tapped his fingers on the armrest of his chair, his eyes narrowing into a scowl as the Australian turned a half-burned face more toward him. England narrowed his eyes at the former colony and commonwealth before glancing around to all of the machines hooked up to him.

"Just like your idiot half-brother," Arthur hissed as he shook his head. "Here I was hoping that just _one_ of you would be daft enough to _blow yourself up!_ What were you hoping to accomplish? Reach the moon?"

Cody smirked and closed his eyes, apparently amused with the concern his former caretaker still had. Arthur, however, was _not _amused.

"Damn it all, boy! Did you know about it or not?" Arthur almost shouted.

The two locked eyes again and the crooked smile of the injured nation became a definite frown. "Oi, Artie," he whispered, his words coming out like dry leaves swaying in a wind. "I'd never … never do that to … to my people."

Controlling the shaking his body was feeling, Arthur knotted his thick eyebrows and settled back in his chair. It was enough to calm his nerves at least, to feel as though in the very least Cody hadn't known about the nuclear testing that was taking place in the country's less inhabited regions.

Faintly Britain recalled when he had more of a say in what the country did, and how uninterested or even completely _against_ the testing Australia was when the British government furthered its research in the nuclear divisions within the country. Cody loved his lands too much to even fathom hosting such a dangerous weapon.

This, however, brought up another memory, not of Cody but of Alfred, and it made Arthur's knuckles go white.

He remembered the desolated Japanese landscape and he recalled the look of shock in his former colony's face. He remembered the nation saying _I had no idea it was this bad_ with horrific realization but a significant lack of regret. Arthur was infuriated with that, had made it a point at the next allied meeting to encourage the fellow nations to not let their governments keep secrets from them anymore.

When the burned nation turned his head again, as if to keep Arthur from continuing the conversation any further, the older nation bit his thumb and closed his eyes.

He got that strange sensation … like someone else was in the room when he glanced over to the seat next to him and nearly jumped. After the startle, however, he recalled that it was Canada and rubbed his face. He hadn't gotten any sleep on the way to Australia and now he was sure he wouldn't be able to sleep until he heard again from the doctor.

Still, that was no excuse for not being more kind to Canada, who had nearly as long of a journey to get to the southern continent as Britain.

He began to address his older former colony when the doors burst open.

Arthur didn't even have to look to know who it was.

"Cody!" Alfred gasped, out of breath, before rushing over to the side of his half-brother's bed. He was a sweaty mess and looked like he had just rolled out of the bed before jumping on the plane to get here. "Are you alright? Who bombed you? What happened? I'll go talk to my general—"

"No one bombed him, you git!" Arthur snapped at the foolish younger country.

Shaking his head, Alfred paused and then looked over the bed to see Arthur and Matthew. He made a face at them and straightened up.

"Arthur? Mattie? How'd you guys get here so quick?" he asked. "And what do you mean no one bombed him? Everyone's told me the whole way here that it was a nuclear warhead!"

"We got here faster first of all because you no doubt used another one of your gas guzzlers," Britain hissed, leaning forward in his seat as if he could spit out venom toward the old colony like a viper. "Furthermore, you probably were the last to hear about it since you are always behind in the news—even over what caused this. This is almost as bad as when you almost went to war with Russia because you didn't know the difference between the _nation _of Georgia and your own state."

"Thanks for coming," Cody added to the conversation between quick, labored breaths as he fruitlessly attempted to adjust himself.

"No problem," Al responded casually before glaring at Arthur. "What are you doing here anyway? It kind of sounds like you're just trying to piss everyone off."

"No, as usual that is _your _job," Arthur muttered with a rub of his forehead. "The explosion was caused by some rather shady company positioned in that desert of his. They had been developing some _uranium enrichment _program known as the _Separation of Isotopes by Laser Excitation—"_

"SILEX, I'm familiar," Alfred responded rather matter-of-factly.

"I am shocked," Arthur said with a raise of his brows. "In any case, supposedly they had been increasing their use of uranium over the years for power plant experimentation, at least that is what they told Cody and he, in turn, told us in the 2006 World Conference. As it turns out, that was all rubbish because what they did was transform uranium-232 into a _new _element known as Willidium.

"They apparently thought it would be a good idea to test the boundaries of the new radioactive element," Arthur growled before pinching the skin between his eyes. "Good God, Cody. What have you done?"

The nation didn't respond, but America did.

Alfred looked to Arthur then to Cody, and then back. A strange, unidentifiable emotion grew on his face. "When can I see it?"

There was barely a moment for anyone to catch their breaths before they could all physically feel the _snap_ of Arthur's patience. He leaped up and bore his angry eyes at the younger country.

"What? You want to bloody see it?" he bellowed. "What the hell is wrong with you!"

"I know the long term effects of nuclear testing!" Alfred reasoned, stepping back slightly from his former caretaker. Arthur fancied this babbling was something akin to the boy digging his own grave. "I know their effects on the country. If this new explosion is any indication, we might need more than regular doctors to look over Cody's wounds—"

"No worries, mates," Cody coughed, his voice sounding so brittle. "I … a'right."

"You bastard," Arthur hissed at Alfred. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

_"AL I NEED TO TALK TO YOU IN THE HALLWAY IT'S REALLY SUPER IMPORTANT OKAY LET'S GO!"_

Arthur could barely blink before the red flash before his eye scooted the American out the door with him. It took a few seconds, and a few rational breaths, before Arthur registered that it had been Canada shouting and subsequently shoving his twin out the door before things could get any worse.

Letting out an irritated growl, Arthur slumped into his chair again and shook his head.

"He mean …. well," Cody offered from the bed.

"Hush," the colonizer breathed before, at long last, allowing his worry to show to his young brother. "You need your rest, you idiot. No need for you to get worked up over that one. If you think about it … this was really just one of our regular family reunions."

That made the Aussie smile and he closed his eyes tiredly at long last.

"Love ya … _Pommy," _he kidded.

"Aussie," Arthur responded with a relieved sigh.

* * *

[Notes]  
*ADF refers to the Australian Defense Force, the military organization responsible for the protection of Australia (incorparates Navy, Army, and Air Force).  
*"Jefferson" refers to the theoretical state which, since 1941, has been attempting to be recognized as the area of Northern California and South Western Oregon. Its original secession was denied in lieu of the attack on Pearl Harbor and has never come close to being accomplished again. Since then, our OC!Jefferson has been working dutifully in Al's office, building up favors.  
*Australia, New Zealand, United States (ANZUS) is the military agreement between the three countries to the defense of the Pacific Ocean area. An interesting note is that ANZUS ties the military of Australia and New Zealand and Australia and the United States separately.  
*Australia was claimed for Britain in 1770, before America's Declaration, but for story sake, I'm taking artistic liberty and saying Arthur was a bit busy with warring with his former colony during this time and did not discover the nation-tan until afterward.  
*I hate how Starbucks and Bath & Body have certain things that are only served seasonally ...  
*Nuclear energy has been a very hot topic in Australia since the 1950s. Though the British government did nuclear testing on the continent, Australia itself currently has no weapons program.  
*Separation of Isotopes by Laser Excitation (SILEX) is an Australian-based program focused on nuclear energy. It did explain itself in a United Nations conference in 2006, but that's where the historical accuracy ends. For all intents and purposes, our version of SILEX is a business, not a government operation, receiving federal aid for nuclear testing. Don't confuse it with its real-life counterpart.

**Right: **One more chapter to this arc and then we're back to the international scene!

Please Review!


	4. The Third Element: 3 of 3

_Special thanks to _**Haddyskelly**_ and _**Dontmezwitme **_for the absolutely wonderful reviews! _

**Right:** I suck. That is all XD; Sorry, folks.

* * *

The Element: Part Three of Three

She maneuvered the shift until it was placed in Park and then ignored the whining of the engine as she jerked the keys in a twist and then forced them out of the slot despite their threatening to not give to the command. When all was said and done, she was still not completely satisfied.

Grunting, she kicked the stubborn door open and swung her feet over to the side before leaping out of the high truck, and the stack of old books she had positioned perfectly in her chair.

By the time her feet could touch the grass and she could hear the sound of her faithful friend neighing in the horse trailer, she knew something was amiss.

Her blue eyes narrowed and she spun around on her dirtied heels until she faced who she considered to be the worst of all her arch nemesi. The musky haired girl, looking no more than nine, pointed a thin finger at the boy as her bucked teeth bit into her bottom lip.

The lanky boy just gave a casual smirk to her.

_"Red!"_ she hissed. "You weren't supposed t'be here this weekend!"

"Howdy, _Ashland,_" the brother responded. "And no, I wasn't."

"Call me 'Kent,' you yella' bellied son-ova-bitch!" the little girl shrieked before stomping her way over to the boy. She raised up on the tips of her toes, aspiring to get in his face, but her nose reached no further than his chest. The boy sarcastically bent over so she could get in his face which only caused a furious shriek.

"I hate you, Tennessee! I hate you so much it keeps me up at night!" the girl screamed.

"Aw, Kentucky," he chuckled. "It's nice t'know you think about me."

She released an animalistic cry, ignoring as the Thoroughbred behind her whinnied in what could only be described as a horse fit of laughter. Her eyes narrowed and she pointed at him again.

"What are you doin' here?"

"Pa isn't at the plantation this weekend," he responded with a shrug. It caused her to look around the property in doubt, hoping to prove him wrong. "There's somethin' or the other goin' on in Australia—if ya happen to know where it is, _Kent_—and he went to it."

When there was no one else on the property to be found, Kent released an irritated noise which sounded remotely like the chattering of a bird. Her mouth continued to keep its persistent scowl. "Then why are you here?"

"I figured you'd be the last one on the map to find out," Tennessee smirked and placed his hands in his pockets. "So I thought we could hang out for the weekend, we haven't gone crawdad fishin' in a while."

Before he could make a more enticing offer, Tennessee found himself doubled over, clutching his newly punched stomach. He laughed through his newfound pain and shook his head as he listened to the stomping of tiny feet followed by the cry of an exasperated engine.

* * *

Gradually losing the strength to pull his brother around, Matthew settled for the corner at the end of the hall and released a groan before turning. Alfred just looked at him expectantly with those half-opened eyes.

"Jet lag, man," Al muttered. "It's a killer."

Still trembling from the amount of energy it took to escape the earlier situation, Matthew just shook his head at his brother. He then adjusted Kumajirou in his arms before turning his violet eyes at the older twin. It was enough to make America blink and take notice of something besides himself.

Alfred made a small noise, the same he made when they were children and he did something wrong. "What?"

"Do you go out of your way to try to pick fights?" Matt questioned, his voice coming out much more like a whine then he originally intended.

"Of course not," Al said before shaking his head. "I just _end _them." He then cocked his head to the side and gave Matthew that tight little pouty frown of his and put his hands in his pockets. "What's the matter, Mattie? I wasn't trying to say that I was only worried about the new bomb."

"But that's all anyone heard, Al," Matthew groaned. "This is the problem you keep having over and over again. You're just way too eager to have new weapons under your belt. My boss even predicted you'd be jumping the gun! When stuff like this happens you have to just take your time and … and _breathe _for a second, eh?"

Alfred rolled his eyes at this. "Okay, thank you for that wonderful advice, _Canada," _he scoffed. "You're just the forefront of the military world, aren't you?"

"Militaries aren't everything," the younger twin responded in defeat.

He was beginning to lose the precious few moments of his brother's attention he had. Matthew groaned inwardly, he wasn't even sounding convincing in his own mind.

"At least try not to step on Arthur's toes today, Al," he pleaded. "He's already stressed out today and—"

"He's just going to have to remember that we're not his little colonies anymore," Alfred interrupted with a nonchalant wave of his hand. "We're his equals now, and we can make our own decisions and blow our own shit up if it's what we want to do. After all, Cody'll learn from this and he has two awesome older brothers like us for him to look up to."

"But Cody didn't _want_ this, Al," Matthew heard himself whine. "That's the whole problem. His government and these companies were doing it without telling him. This 'new' element isn't just dangerous, it's _illegal_ and the whole world is already finding out about it."

Al's brow furrowed and at last some signs of realization came across his features.

"I can talk to some of the G8, see if I can keep him from being sanctioned as a nation," Al responded quietly. "I know I can convince most of them to understand the situation, God knows that Ludwig's been in it his share. He shouldn't be tried for what these agencies did."

Matt sighed with relief. He knew all along that behind his bone-headed exterior his brother was a helpful sort. He just wished America would make it to where the rest of the world could see it so clearly, too.

A dangerous flash was in Alfred's eyes, however. It made Matt draw a hand away from cuddling his pet and instead brush through his bangs nervously.

"They'll have to show us the details on creating this element, though," Al said, more to himself than to his twin. "I'd like to have some people go over it before we show it to the likes of China and Russia."

"Al," Matt muttered, part of him knowing it was too late to deter him. He knew that look in his brother's eyes all too well.

* * *

Wang Yao had been in a meeting when the news first became international. Immediately he had bit back on his tongue and hissed _"North Korea"_ under his breath as his boss and several higher ranking officials from his government scattered to both gain information and form a contingency plan.

Nuclear war was not a desirable outcome for any nation or continent, but to have an attack so near Asia was too much to ignore or lose reaction time on.

Nearly a day and a half later, the People's Republic of China sat in the study of his house, reflecting on the silence of what had once been a filled, bustling home.

It was quiet without anyone there, as it had been for what felt like centuries.

He frowned to himself as he looked out the opened screen door. Perhaps it _had_ been centuries. It was so hard to judge at times, especially for a nation as ancient and interwoven in history as China was.

Sighing, he wished to himself that at least Hong Kong would bother to stay with the older nation more often, he still, after all, was a part of China unlike so many of the others. Even if the ever silent and vigilant Li Xiao did not say a word the entire time he was in the home, Yao could not help but think that would make this business in Australia less unnerving.

Closing his eyes, he could capture glimpses of the old times and push the events of the day before aside. He almost found peace in the moment when the hum of plastic against hardwood drew his attention back to his desk.

With a quick sweep of his hand, Yao took the cell phone and answered with, "Nĭ hăo."

The other end of the phone replied with, _"Privet·stviya,__ comrade."_

The corners of the nation's mouth tipped downward and he inwardly questioned how he did not anticipate this call from his friend and ally sooner. If anyone was ever aware of the progress in the world's nuclear warheads or the such, it would be Ivan Braginski.

They discussed their current knowledge on the Australian warhead. Yao set aside his schedule for the next week. The end of the week would be an emergency World Conference between himself and the rest of the nations over how to place restrictions on and punish those responsible for breaking International Law.

The beginning of the week was set aside for Russia to come and visit China for discussions on how this would affect their own diplomatic relations.

* * *

The flowers were a bit much.

Pennsylvania thought that as soon as he purchased the small bouquet of roses from the first floor gift shop. He could not even remember his thought process as he chose to walk into the hospital that day. All he remembered was yelling at his father for running in the halls and then deciding it would be wisest to just give up any hope of keeping up.

Just because the young man was a state of his father's did not mean he had his speed or general athleticism.

He paused just at the door of the Principality's room and flashed his identification card to a skeptical looking soldier before entering.

Samuel stopped and looked at the tan skinned micronation who sat in the bed before him. She gave a tight furrow of her bushy brows and cocked her head to the side as she studied him more.

"Hello, Principality of Wy, on behalf of the United States of America, I would like to give you this bouquet and hope you get well soon," he said very matter of factly.

"Well, aren't you just a show pony," she quipped. "If you're trying to woo me, you'll have to outdo Seborga."

She then waved her hand over to the table beside her on which hundreds of flowers, Italian desserts, and stuffed animals were stacked one over the other. The common theme was hearts, an oil painting hanging behind it all had more than enough surrounding the self-portrait of the Italian principality.

_Perhaps the flowers weren't enough …_

Pennsylvania froze and eyed the huge assortment of gifts before finally shaking his head, nearly knocking his bifocals off of his nose. He swiftly, almost instinctively, shoved them back to their proper spot, however, and looked desperately to the young girl before him.

"No, no, no. I'm afraid you're misreading my intentions, Miss Wy," Sam said with his face feeling as though it were on fire. "While you are quite a lovely young nation, I am merely wishing you well in regards of my Nation while he is currently visiting with your older brother down the hall."

Her green eyes scanned him once more before hardening. "What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't," he corrected as politely as possible. "But if you would like it, I'm Pennsylvania."

There was little to no recognition on the principality's face. The young nation, if Penns had recalled correctly, had never come to America yet and as such probably had not run into either him or his siblings. However, this theory soon faded, as a twinkle grew in her eye and Wy smirked at him knowingly.

"Oh, I've heard of you," she said with a slight chuckle escaping her badly parched lips. "You're America's whipping boy."

"One of," he said nonchalantly. "And the term for this century is more along the lines of _domestic assistant."_

It was true. Penns had developed the phrase for himself and whatever other state at the time felt it was their turn to take the burden of working in their father's office with him. He had even gone so far as to make a business card for himself with the title, but his father had sat him down and asked him if he wanted to be shoved into a locker by bullies for the rest of his life.

"So you've not been angry enough yet to declare independence or something?" she asked before coughing into her fist, the sardonic façade she had been using was beginning to fade the longer the conversation went.

He observed her somewhat closer before allowing the corners of his lips to fidget into a _very _forced smile. He was so awful at international diplomacy, why hadn't he told York to get off his ass and come instead?

"That would be treason," he said in short, clipped terms. "And I couldn't fathom a large enough reason to leave the Union, especially after the Civil War business has been settled for something along the lines of one-hundred fifty years."

She blinked at him. "Really? All it took for me was an unpaved driveway."

Not sure how to respond to that one, Samuel shook his head and walked cautiously to the table by the bathroom and rested his rather humble bouquet alongside some more stuffed animals, all falling short of the near-shrine which resided at the bedside. Penns began to make mental notes, the first being he should brush up on his international affairs.

"Say, Penny-sale," she said rather casually, causing the boy to question if she had genuinely mispronounced his name or not, "wouldn't that be your Big Brother? What's he doing?"

He turned enough to look out the door over his shoulder, his eyebrows hiding in his bangs as he looked expectantly. Indeed, America walked by, his face in a stern frown and his arms crossed across his broad chest as none other than Canada followed with a concerned look and a sigh being all he had to his name.

"Uh, that would be my _father_, actually," Penns responded before looking back to the young principality. "As for what he's doing, well, I can't be for certain but I would almost always place my bet on 'showing the world his ass.'"

She gave him a strange look before frowning.

"Americans are a strange bunch."

He held back a laugh and the urge to say _you don't know the half of it._

* * *

Arthur sat back in what must have been the most uncomfortable chair ever to be created and closed his eyes in thought. There would be a lot of strings he would have to pull in order to make sure the other nations did not overreact to Cody's new problem. He would have to work even harder to prove to the others that he wasn't the one in fact responsible for the issue to begin with.

After all, the only official nuclear testing to be handled in Australia _had _been at his government's hands.

Grunting to himself, he brought up his hands and gently massaged his forehead before sighing. "Oh, what a bloody mess," he mused quietly.

It was a good thing that Sealand had been staying with Finland and Sweden for the past few weeks. It gave the elder nation one less concern to freight over. The thoughts of his tiny principality brought him around to glancing over Cody's sleeping form, and Arthur did his best to only pay attention to the uninjured half of Australia's body.

It seemed like only a short time ago it was this young nation running around the London home, making a nuisance of himself and catching random animals to show Britain proudly.

"You all grow up so fast," Arthur sighed as he crossed his right leg over his left and allowed his thoughts to switch to another of his former colonies on accident.

The door flung open again, causing Cody to jolt awake and Arthur to leap to his feet in absolute rage.

"Have you never opened a door before, you git!" Arthur howled at the American.

"Whoops!" Alfred responded before turning his head more toward Cody, his mind not giving the door or the new dent in the wall a second thought. He instead smiled eagerly at his younger brother and made his way to the bedside, receiving a smile from Australia in response.

Arthur groaned and then looked to the other twin who sighed and shook his head in response to his brother's shenanigans. By the time Canada finally looked at him, the Englishman had folded his arms expectantly.

"You couldn't keep him out of the room for a while longer?" he demanded, the back of his mind trying desperately to remind him that what America did was not his twin's fault. "God forbid that he let Australia _rest_ or anything."

"Sorry," the other muttered, his violet eyes darting around the room as he squirmed under Arthur's gaze.

"But like I was saying," Alfred continued, bringing the elder nation around to realize he had been chatting the entire time, "I'll see what I can do about the other nations off your back, but we've got to figure out what kind of nuclear … _thing_ we're dealing with first."

That just brought Old England's blood to a boil as he glared at America.

"Now see here," he snapped, causing both Alfred and Cody to look back to him. "I will handle the other countries, they'll be expecting my involvement anyway. And as for getting more information on this nuclear catastrophe we have here, you might as well as forget it, Alfred. You can learn about it as the rest of us do. The more your military sticks its nose in this, the more enemies Cody is going to receive."

This caused the American's look to sour and he stood straight, as if to remind his former mentor that he was taller and stronger than he was all those years ago.

"Why would they expect you to be involved? You're not his _master_ anymore, Britain," he spat. "And my military _has_ to be involved due to ANZUS. If anyone was going to accuse me of having a hand in this, they've already came to that conclusion anyway."

They locked eyes as the remaining two nations remained quiet. As usual, this argument had nothing to do with either Australia or the current state of world affairs. This argument was much older than that and it was one that would seemingly never go away.

"Not that my opinion matters," Cody suddenly croaked from the bed, "but I'd rather you both help me out with this."

They remained quiet but knew they would have to work together, whether they liked it or not.

* * *

[Notes]  
*Okay, on this two-person team I am pretty much the "East Coast" person. I am from Eastern Kentucky. "Kent" is not based on me in any way, nor is Tennessee-tan based on anyone I know. However, their interactions are based on a bit of fact. I've heard plenty of stories about people living on the Tennessee-Kentucky border having their cats/dogs dyed or tattooed in the colors of each other's main university (UK and UT of course). So, yeah.  
*Australia is a member of the Group of Twenty (G20) which is pretty impressive in the international sense. However, it is not a member of the even more influential Group of Eight (G8) which consists of Canada, Federal Republic of Germany, French Republic, Italian Republic, Russian Federation, State of Japan, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and United States of America  
*"Nĭ hăo" Chinese. "Hello."  
*_"Privet·stviya,__ comrade."_/"Приветствия, товарищ." Russian. "Greetings, comrade."  
*In this series, the states work as "domestic servants" sort of, allowing the "parent" nations to maintain focus on international/diplomatic relations. This, however, is a more recent development, particularly for America who has a history of isolating himself, particularly before the World Wars and during the McCarthy years.

**Right: **I know, I know. Everyone's sick of me. But I have a second arc and then it's Left's turn, I swear XD;

Please Review!


	5. World Affairs: 1 of 3

_Thanks so much to _**Dontmezwitme **_and _**ChaoticXXHearts**_ for the supportive reviews! Seriously, they meant so much! _

**Right:** I think you all just need to beat me with a stick because I keep dragging out my part. After this "arc" it is Left's turn for real and you can go back to reading her epic narratives. I'm sorry, I know ._. Please forgive me!

* * *

World Affairs: Part One of Three

His feet carried him across down the corridor. He ignored the familiar rooms and doors as he passed them. He had been in the Hong Kong World Conference Building more than enough times to know his way around. In truth, he very well may have been the only country which had attended each held conference without fail since 1945.

It would not have surprised Japan if he found this to be true.

Currently Honda Kiku was attempting to fulfill an e-mail request he had received earlier that day. It had been from his oniisan, the People's Republic of China. It seemed very urgent in spite of its vague detail.

That was why it became a mystery to him as he stopped when he heard an all too familiar voice yell out, _"Kiku!_ Hey! Wait up! I really need to talk to you for a second!"

Japan sighed and halted his brisk pace before turning his shoulders just enough to see none other than the United States of America making his way toward him. It made the older nation tsk, but otherwise he did not give a response.

"You're a hard man to catch up to!" Alfred panted as he finally stopped at an uncomfortable distance to Kiku.

"America-kun—"

"Alfred."

_"Arufureddo—_" Kiku stopped and stared quietly at the other nation as he bit his lip and suppressed a giggle at what he called 'Japan's Engrish' ("This is why I do not call you by your name, America-kun!") – "on most dates I would be most delighted to have a conversation with you, but I am very busy. I must meet with my brother."

"Oh, you're probably trying to get there twenty minutes early, anyway. I'll spare you some bored waiting time," Alfred said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I really have to talk to you."

"I believe you should be more concerned with the presentation you are giving this evening with England-san," the Asian man reminded him. "It is a very, as you say, _hot topic_ at this moment. Your brother has still not been able to come to our Meetings and it has been many, many months since these warheads became an international concern."

Alfred pouted slightly at the reminder and folded his arms. As he straightened, Kiku was reminded just how large and intimidating his close friend could be. "Arthur won't even let me in the room while he's getting stuff together. As for Cody, well, he's been out of the hospital but Arthur and I both believe that it's best if he just rests and recovers. Actually, his face looks a lot better, and he's starting to work out—"

This brought Japan to uncharacteristically raise his eyebrows. A nation with that powerful of a weapon _working out?_

"Al, you promised to shut up about that."

The unexpected noise brought Japan to go rigid. His spine shivered and he looked around the hall. Could it be that one of Norway's ghoulish friends had gone free again? Were England's suspicious ghosts out and about?

With these various nations gathered it was always hard to tell.

Then, after a few haunting moments, Alfred let out a small laugh and was looking to his left side. "Oh, Matt. I forgot you were following me."

Kiku blinked and began to make out the nation beside America. The two looked almost identical, though this 'Matt' had longer, curlier hair and a less daunting presence. He did not carry his chest out proudly but instead seemed to curl around a small, white bear that was in his arms.

Who was this again? Oh, yes. Japan's mind began to piece together the information at last. It was Canada, America's quiet and mostly forgotten twin nation.

The quiet twin was frowning at his more boisterous counterpart and hugged the bear tighter. "You promised," he reminded his brother yet again.

"Oh, oops," Al responded in a low mutter, finally realizing his blunder. He then smiled confidently at Japan. "But it's just Kiku. He's like my best friend, and he's really good at keeping secrets. I'm sure he wouldn't take that whole working out business the wrong way."

To this, Kiku sighed. Leave it to the American to know how to flatter him into submission. "You should watch your words more, America-kun. I could very well have taken such news negatively. It is, after all, rather shocking. You are also much too trusting. I am your friend, but nations must think of their people first, not their own relationships. If I had taken this news as threatening, no amount of friendship would prevent me from taking action."

America stood with a goofy grin. Canada looked utterly defeated.

Kiku shook his head and turned more directly toward the North American brothers. "That is all the 'lesson' I shall teach you today," he promised. "What is this news you wished to speak with me about?"

"Actually, it was Australia," he admitted before shoving his hands down into the pockets of his brown suit. He rocked back and forth on the heels of his dress pants and Kiku noted how out of place America seemed dressed up. It was not a very natural look for him. "See, you're one of my closest friends and allies and you also happen to be in the Pacific."

The island nation sighed. He did not like where this was going.

"It'd be really helpful for my little brother if we could show that he has solid ties with the Pacific Community," Alfred explained further. "Obviously New Zealand and some others support him, but that's not going to do much on an international scale."

"You need someone with influence in the G8, G20, and Asia," Japan sighed with a shake of his head.

"I need _you_, Kiku," a serious tone suddenly dropped into Alfred's voice. It brought the island nation to look up at his friend's concerned face. "Look, it's not about me wanting more permission to stream anime or anything. I'm worried. My little brother just got taken advantage of by some corporate assholes and his own government. Now he's facing serious charges."

"It is a large issue," Japan reasoned. "And it may be unfair, but even a young nation must know how to see past his own people's lies and deceits."

"And 'I didn't know' isn't a good twenty-first century excuse, I know," Alfred continued. "But it honestly isn't his fault, Kiku. You said it yourself, he's really young. Hell, younger than me. And I'm not asking to not charge him completely, just dropping some of the more pressing sanctions. And I think it'd be beneficial if we continued to have international aid repair his more damaged regions."

Kiku sighed. "I am unsure—"

"Would you do it if it were Korea?"

Japan's normally dulled eyes sparked and flashed over to his friend. The question had been a jab but also completely serious. Kiku could see it in the very stiff posture his friend held.

After waiting a moment, Kiku nodded. "Yes. I would do it if it were my brothers or sisters. I understand where you are taking this conversation."

The American rubbed his hands. "So you'll help me talk to some of the others?"

Sighing and rubbing his head he nodded. "Yes, America-kun, you will have the support of the State of Japan in your Australian endeavors."

"A-ha!" America exclaimed before doing something which caught Japan off guard. He watched quietly as his friend bowed humbly toward him and smirked. _"Arigatō, Nihon."_

Smiling softly, Kiku returned the gesture.

_"Anata wa, Amerika-kun o manande iru,"_ he said gently. Straightening himself, he then nodded to the meeker North American country, having to actively think to not forget him again. "Now I must be going. I beg your apologies."

"Hey, it's cool," America responded with a shrug. "Maybe after the presentation tonight we can meet up and catch something to eat." _Work out something more official. _Japan could almost hear it under Alfred's breath.

"Perhaps," Kiku stated. "We shall see."

"I'll hold you to it!" Alfred called as the Japanese man made his way back down the hall and toward the private office used by China and Hong Kong when orchestrating these meetings. It made Kiku shake his head because he knew that his friend meant that more than anything else that he had said.

As he entered the office, he was greeted by his older brother sitting at the desk, Hong Kong standing by him with an unreadable look draped across his features, as usual.

"Ah, Li Xiao," Kiku greeted Hong Kong before looking to China. "Yao-sama." He bowed his head slightly and closed the door behind him.

"Only five minutes early, Kiku?" China asked as the Japanese brother returned to his stiff, original posture. "Very unusual for you, aru."

"And for this I apologize."

"No need," Hong Kong spoke up with a bit of a furrow threatening to disturb his thick eyebrows. "Five minutes or forty. You are still early, Kiku." He then bowed respectably and straightened. "It is good to see you as well, _Xiōngdì."_

When the boy closed his mouth this time, Kiku could see his teeth clench and he knew that, as far as Li was concerned, their conversation was over. It was only between Japan and China now and it was already giving the aura of being a _dandy, _as America would say.

"What does this meeting concern, Oniisan?" Kiku asked curiously as he looked over Yao who, in turn, looked over him.

"I am concerned for _Dìdì de_ safety, aru," Yao responded with a great amount of sincerity sparking in his eyes. "As I am with all of Asia's security."

Blinking, Kiku held his hands behind his back and tilted his head to the side. "My safety? I was not aware that there was danger for me to be concerned with."

"Then the threats of Australia do not bring you worry, aru?"

Adjusting himself, Japan sighed and straightened the jacket of his suit. "No, Oniisan. It does not worry me, least not in the ways you are projecting. I have already begun similar discussions about this situation with members of—"

"The G8, aru?" China questioned. His hands then folded neatly together on his desk as Japan looked expectantly at him. "I would not know, aru."

Japan was taken aback by this, his brother was sounding strangely bitter over a situation which Japan foolishly thought they had put behind them years and years beforehand. Still, the younger nation tightened his hands' grips on one another and looked soundly at Yao.

"I understand your concerns, and appreciate them," Kiku quickly added at the end. "However, I do not believe you should concern yourself with it. America-kun and England-san are giving their final announcement on Australia-san's behalf this evening. I am sure all our issues and concerns shall be addressed."

"I do not want to wait for tonight to come, aru, before such important thins are addressed, Kiku," China said gently. "I did not wait. And, aru, I am offering you a chance to see what information I have gathered in spite of not being included in such important council meetings as the G8, aru."

This caused Japan to scowl slightly. "Spying, Oniisan?"

"The information fell into my lap, aru. I am about to let it land in yours," the older nation's eyes became a darker shade. "I am attempting to look out for you, Kiku~aru. It is all I have ever tried to do, aru."

"I trust my friends," Japan said in a finalized tone. "Otherwise I would not keep their company. I shall learn all that is in that folder this evening in the presentation. I thank you for your offer, Yao-sama, and for your concerns. My answer, though, is no."

Kiku watched his brother give him a crushed expression.

"You wound me, aru," Yao said quietly. "How much longer will you treat these Europeans and their kin closer than family, aru? Do you truly believe that these weapons are not to be used for returning ourselves and our siblings into colonies, _Xiăo dìdì_~aru?"

"If I believed in such a threat, Oniisan, they would not be my friends," Kiku attempted to explain but shortly stopped.

His brother would not listen to him past that point and Japan was tired of this argument.

* * *

"Damn. No milk."

York was not really sure what he had been expecting. Their father had not stepped foot in the country since the Australia fiasco began and now he was left house sitting on his leave time. Not that he had to watch the house. There were fifty of the State Siblings, all under their father's tentative care, but he was one of the oldest. One of the original Thirteen.

That meant that if he was home while Dad was away, he could inevitably play _God._

He shut the fridge door and groaned before looking over his shoulder to see three of his siblings in the nearby kitchen. They were squirming on the couch or the floor, following the characters on the television screen that their respective controllers directed.

"Hey, assholes!" York swore. "We don't have milk. One of you get off your desert butts and get some at the store. I didn't drive from New York to Virginia so I could cook and clean for you little shits."

"Oh, boo-hoo, York," the shortest of the three said with a roll of his eyes. "We took a plane from Arizona to get here. And then drove." He turned his well-tanned face more directly toward his brother. "Oh, by the way, we're using your LIVE account."

"New Mexico, I'll kick your scrawny ass from here back to Area Fifty-One if you don't watch your mouth," the eldest snapped.

"Fine, fine," Neil laughed. "He did mention something about 'desert butts,'" he said, this time to the two brothers playing with him. "Well, I suppose that means Ari got volunteered for Milk Duty."

"What the hell, Neil?" Arizona hissed. "You make another Grand Canyon joke and I'll _help _York shove you into a spaceship so you can find your little green men."

"Okay, he's silver. And dammit, guys, it's _TONY! _Every last one of you has seen him! How the hell do you deny that he exists?" Neil squealed before pointing toward the alien who walked through the hallway with a placid look on his face, once more ignoring the Jones boys.

"Sure, Neil," Arizona said. "I'd also like to point out, _again_, that it's Colorado's damn river that made the canyon."

Colorado snorted as he leaned over his controller and concentrated on the small corner of screen he had. "Oh, you're just mad because I am kicking both of your asses at King of the Hill right now—"

All three boys let out screams and gasps as the television turned into a black abyss before their very eyes. Rad even went so far as to throw down his controller so as to more dramatically grab the sides of his head. "MY HIGH SCORE!"

York stood with the cord in his hand. "I'm not putting up with bullshit this weekend! We need milk and you're totally messing with my God Complex right now. Get a move on it, all three of you!"

The three larger states stared at their older brother for a while before glancing to each other and then snorting. The jokesters headed out a few quick jabs at each other and Neil grabbing the grocery money that Dad always hid under the flower pot in the kitchen.

Satisfied with himself, York plugged the television back in and sat down with his favorite controller.

"Trying to use my LIVE account, unbelievable," he muttered before searching for a good server to join. He ignored as the front door opened to a pissed off looking Pennsylvania.

"Want to play, Sammy?" York questioned, both to patronize his brother as well as direct him to what part of the house the army brat was in. He smirked as Penns stiffly walked into the room and glared at the television screen. "It's stress relief. You should try it, take the stick out. You might actually smile."

"Uh, if you haven't noticed, Dad's not been home in almost six months," Penns growled. "Things are falling apart, and there's only so much I can do. There's a reason we're no longer called _These _United States, York. We don't function cohesively as a Union unless we have Dad here to temperament things. I have governors breathing down my back asking why papers I was sent in _January _haven't been signed yet."

"See, you worked too hard to get that stuff done on time," York sighed. "Now people expect something from you. I told you not to take up being Dad's right-hand man back in eighteen-one. You should have made it a position to rotate between all of us."

This made Pennsylvania's reddened face go violet. "Something in this country has to be consistent, York."

"Like your wardrobe? Have you updated since Franklin died?" York questioned before looking to his brother, pausing his session in the game. "Look, I know you're efficient, but the reason this isn't working so well for you is because you expect yourself to do the same amount of work that Dad does. You can't. You're one of fifty."

"He's not doing it, though," Penns reminded him pointedly.

"Well, tell him," New York groaned. "We're not the only ones doing this sort of work. Canada has provinces, there's the German States, the Japanese Clans, and not to mention all the micronations and so forth that live with older nations. They all take care of domestic issues. It's supposed to be the job of the actual nation to supervise, but worry more about the international stuff."

Taking a deep breath and no doubt counting to ten, Pennsylvania shook his head and glared at his brother. "But you have to feel it, too. There's … something _weaker_ about us all when he's not here for too long. We need him here. He needs to sign his _stupid _papers."

"Oh, just say 'fucking'," York snorted. "Stop acting like a Quaker."

With that, Pennsylvania turned and left.

"Hey, where are you going?" the army brat called.

"Georgia's!" The mention of their southern sister made York's stomach growl as he thought of her famous Cheese Pie. "She's the only one of you all that I can talk to!"

* * *

[Notes]

*1945, the United Nations starts up after the end of WWII. Japan would become actively involved from this point on, of course. The first meetings had more than just a little to do with dealing with the Axis and what not.  
*This is the summer of 2010 in this "universe," July to be exact, and the Australian Nuclear Crisis occurred in early December of the previous year. So, obviously, it's been about seven months since stuff hit the fan, six months since Alfred has been doing his domestic duties. (It's also about six months since a certain letter has been sent out~)  
*_"Arigatō, Nihon." _Japanese. "Thank you, Japan."  
*_"Anata wa, Amerika-kun o manande iru." _Japanese. "You are learning, America-kun."  
*Left and I decided (in about five lines of dialogue on AIM, like almost everything else we decide on unanimously) that Hong Kong's human name was Li Xiao Chun to his family, and the "nickname" Leon to his fellow British colonies because, y'know, English or die mentality and what not. Both were suggested by Himaruya on his blog.  
*_Xiōngdì."_ Chinese. "Brother."  
*"_Dìdì de" _Chinese. "my brother's"  
*So, many may consider this China a little OOC, but I promise he's just being a watchful older brother in his mind. And, yes, he's slightly bitter about the G8 business but, really, who wouldn't be? It's basically - no, correction - _it is _the Axis and Allies in a special group minus him.  
*_"__Xiăo dìdì." _Chinese. "Little brother."

*The Thirteen in these stories are the original Thirteen Colonies which created Colonial America. In this universe they're almost like America's most trusted advisers, having been created by the pride of the individual colonies shortly before the Revolution. Their history won't be necessary for understanding the directions this fic will take, but their dynamics do help understand the rift between the New England states and the rest of the country (which is important later on). Again, not trying to detract from the nations, but their involvement makes more sense later on.  
*New Mexico is host to Area 51 and Roswell. NM - or Neil - is often made fun of for these. (BUT THE FIRST REPORTED UFO WAS IN KENTUCKY. WE POLITELY RESPONDED BY SHOOTING AT IT. I KID YOU NOT.)  
*Technically speaking, the United States of America was never actually 'founded.' It was the independence of the 13 colonies that was declared and fought for. Even in the first constitution (The Articles of Confederation) and early drafts of the United States Constitution, the federal government really was much more akin to a doctrine of the European Union. Each of the states were like independent collectives uniting under a collective government (in mindset, not legally). It was the debate over the rights of the states v. the rights of the federal government that was the actual civil war. It was not until after the Civil War was the country called "THE United States of America." And, with that, I'm sure a bunch of you can see where this is going XD;  
*Quakers. Otherwise known as the Religious Society of Friends (which could be the greatest superhero group name ever, but I digress) was an English religious movement that took root in America. They were VITAL to the creation of modern day Pennsylvania. And I like buying their soaps. _  
_

**Right: **Considering that my Notes section for JUST part one of this mess is almost as long as the states-scene (and longer than some upcoming scenes, for shame) I hope you guys can understand why uploading these pre-written story arcs takes a good while. It takes a long time to write them too, because I'm made of fail. But I digress. Again, the state involvement is important for later on in the story and I DO understand that this doesn't make it enjoyable to read. I'm really sorry for that, I try my best to make them work ;_; Lots of historical context, I know. On the plus side, Left and I have been working REALLY SUPER HARD on these. And, hopefully, WE SHAN'T DISAPPOINT.

Please Review!


	6. World Affairs: 2 of 3

_Thanks so much to _**ChaoticXXHearts**_ for the supportive reviews! _

**Right:** The excuse for not updating last week is that ... I really have no excuse. Left and I are working on an animation project together for our other on-going series, Avatalia, and it kind of made me ... forget everything else I was doing. So, other than being at the consensus that I'm a terrible person, not much to report XD So sorry, folks. And I do apologize if people don't like the states. I'm ... working on it.

* * *

World Affairs: Part Two of Three

As they watched Japan hurry off to whatever business he had to attend to, the North American brothers stared after him quietly. Then, rather suddenly, America raised his brows to his quiet twin.

"So, what? Arthur send you to babysit?"

"And a good thing he did, eh?" Matthew responded as he allowed himself to slump. "Really, Al, can you think just a _little _before you open your mouth. You're not just representing your own country's interests anymore. This is about Australia, too. And while you have the whole World Superpower thing to fall back on so no one acts _too_ insulted by you, Cody won't have the same privileges."

By the time Canada happened to look up from his bear to more directly address his brother, however, he found that the twin was already taking off down the hall.

"Oh, maples!" he muttered before racing to catch up. "Alfred F. Jones, just hear me out! Please!"

"I always hear you out," the twin stated with a dismissive wave of his hand as the more northern nation caught up with him. "Name a time I haven't, Oh, Canada."

"Eh, _ever?"_ He sighed and shook his head. This was going to end badly for Matt, he just knew it. "But that's not the point, Al. The point is that I know you think you can trust all these nations to not overreact but, as it turns out, that seems to be all we nations do. Throughout history."

"Overreact to people blowing themselves up?" Al questioned skeptically. "Seems like they'd be more happy. Saves them time."

This caused Matthew to groan. "It means there's a danger of them being able to blow up other nations, too."

Alfred blinked and looked over to his brother again, ignoring how much effort it was taking for the Canadian to keep up with his quick, fast stride. "Look, Matt, anyone who knows Cody or talks to him for more than half a minute realize that he couldn't hurt a fly. The only thing he gets super-passionate about is conservation, and so long as Kiku fixes up his whaling practices I don't think Cody is going to war over that anytime soon."

"Not that many people know Cody personally, Al," Matt reminded him. "Not too many outside of our family."

"Sure they do!" the louder responded. "He's part of the G20! How could they not know him?"

This made Matthew's face go as red as his flag, truly catching his brother's attention for the first time. "I'm part of the G20 _and _G8, Al. And no one hardly remembers me."

This brought the twins to a stop. They looked at each other quietly for a moment, as if to study the other's reactions. They ignored the people and nations who walked by, glancing past their shoulders in bewilderment as they thought they were suddenly seeing double.

"Why would you say something like that, Mattie?" Al asked, his voice filled with genuine concern.

"Because it's true, Al, and if you think about it, you know it," Matt said quietly. "Maples. Half the time you're the one who forgot me at the meetings, but that's not the point, eh? This is about Cody. Besides you, me, and England, who _really _knows him?"

Placing his hands on his hips, Alfred tipped his head to the side and blinked. That was a tough question his brother was asking!

"Uh," he responded. "New Zealand?"

"Of the G8 or G20, Al," Canada continued. "Nations that have the biggest say-so in how he's going to be punished."

"Who said he was going to get punished? That's what we're trying to fix!"

"Yeah, and so far you've gotten the _possible _approval of only one nation," Matt reminded him. "So, until you've convinced more people, I'm not giving our hopes up. And you still haven't named anyone."

"Damn, Mattie, you're cutting into me today," Al responded with a forced grin on his face. There was an awkward buzzing noise and both nations checked their pockets. As it turned out, it was Al's phone vibrating. "Ha!" he laughed as he pulled it out and began to enter his password. "That means you make me breakfast."

"I hate this game," Matt sighed. "It's never my phone. Superman."

"Aw, shit," Al grimaced. "How'd you guess it?"

"Lucky," Matt responded with a roll of his eyes. "That means you—"

"Pay for dinner, I know, I made the rules," Al sighed before his face twisted into a perplexed expression. He sighed and rubbed his chin as he glanced at the device. The quietness the message stirred from his brother was actually rather disturbing for the Canadian.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

"Storms in California again," Al sighed. "And Nebraska's deficit is just _tanking _on us. I have no idea what the hell is wrong with it. This is the third stimulus plan I've approved and according to Connecticut it fell on its ass. I mean, geeze. I'm not even sure what to really do for Neb except keep buying Kool-Aid, but that shit's getting expensive now and they're thinking of moving the factory."

"You got all that from a text message?" Matt asked.

"No, just the storms thing."

"Then—"

Al frowned and shrugged before pocketing his device. "They're my kids. I just know," he sighed before releasing his obnoxious laugh. "I guess I needed to get it off my chest. I'm going to get yelled at by Pennsylvania again today it looks like."

"What?" Matt asked. "Why?"

"He thinks I need to come home," Al shrugged. "But I've been busy going between Australia and the UK and every now and then to other countries to try and rally some support. It's just about the only thing Arthur will let me do."

His brows furrowing, Matthew began to notice a very disturbing pattern.

"Alfred," he said gently, "just … just long has it been since you've been home?"

"Hmm?" Al asked before tapping his chin. "Oh, geeze. I don't know. I stopped by LA once or twice. NYC for a stop …" Canada frowned and decided it was best not to point out that plane boardings did not count. "Well, to be honest, Matt, I think I haven't been home for more than a day since this started."

_"What?" _the Canadian's voice cracked, he looked horrified at his brother. "Al, you can't do that! You'll make yourself sick!"

This caused him to snort. "No it won't. My kids are handling it okay, and I can promise you that as soon as this is over with, I'm probably locking myself in the Kansas estate and not coming out to play the International Game for a while."

No false assurances from his brother could put the Canadian's jaw back in alignment. "Al, you can't be serious. This is _bad._ You can't do that."

"They're fine."

"What about Nebraska?"

Alfred made a face and folded his arms across his chest. "Okay. Touche. I've already got a flight for going back home at the end of this week, though. A few days won't matter."

Matt looked unsure at his brother before having a hand clasped on his shoulder. America grinned that smile that only he could.

"Don't worry about it, Matt. I'm like Superman. I'm going to get Cody out of this rut, fly back home, save the kids from strangling one another, _and _give Pennsylvania the shock of his life as I sign every last one of my damn Domestic Policy Papers without him saying a word about it to me."

The Canadian's head drooped. "If you say so."

"I do! Now, I've got to find Arthur and get this all-too-amazing show on the road!"

* * *

America was about as subtle as a train wreck.

Arthur knew his former colony was fastly making his way through the halls before strolled through the door. No, _strolled_ was never a good description for Alfred. It was more like the country _burst _into the room and each moment he spent in it there was the threat that either his head or his ego would explode next.

England stood expectantly in the center of the office before shaking his head and grabbing the flash drive which contained the majority of their visual aids.

Thank God for technology. It made the elder nation cringe as he remembered all the times they had to go so far as carry oversized charts and draw on chalk boards to keep everyone's heads straight in the onslaught of statistics and information.

"You look like hell," was the first thing to come out of the younger nation's grinning mouth. "Don't be so nervous, Arthur. I'm sure it'll all go down fine."

"Of course you are," the former mentor spat before pocketing the flash drive and beginning to gather the last of his papers into his opened brief case. "Have you even given the alternative a second thought?"

To this America snuffed up his nose and shrugged, his hands shoving their ways into his pockets. He smirked at Arthur and cocked his head to the side. "No need to worry. The hero always saves the world at the end of the day! I mean, no one here wants to start a war over this thing."

Arthur resisted the urge to sock Alfred right there for even mentioning war at a time as tense as this. He instead rubbed his face and shook his head.

"I have the unshakable feeling that you're not taking this quite that seriously, boy," he muttered.

"Well, you're wrong. I do take WMD's seriously," Al reasoned as he crossed his arms and cocked his head to the side. "However, I do hope we're showing some backbone here, too. For Cody's sake. We can't make Australia look like it's not taking some advantages of this new discovery."

The elder Nation needed a drink.

"Good God, do you even listen to some of the filth that leaks from that mouth of yours?" Arthur questioned before snapping the brief case closed. "I suppose the one thing I _can _appreciate from this disaster is that you _are_ seeming to let me handle the majority of thinking. So there's that."

The American grew a peculiar look on his face and crossed his arms.

"Eh," a timid voice spoke up from the doorway. Arthur looked over to see Matthew. "It's close to time for the meeting, you two. I'm going to go take my seat. Maybe I can convince Cuba to consider some of the things you're mentioning if I sit next to him."

Arthur blinked and recalled the hands-off involvement of the second North American brother. Bloody hell, they had both been his colonies, why did he keep forgetting Canada?

"Er, that sounds wonderful, Matthew," Arthur responded, how off guard he was leaking into his tone.

"Oh, forget smooth talk, Matt. All you need to say is that I'll kick his ass if he doesn't agree with us. Oh, and drop a commie joke while you're at it," Alfred interrupted.

It caused Canada to shift uncomfortably. "Come on, Al, he's one of my friends …" the thought continued on in a low mumble.

"Oh, sod off, Alfred," Arthur hissed. "Matthew, go sit wherever you feel like it. Do not let your brother bully you. If you cannot stand up to him for yourself how in the world are you going to stand up to the likes of Russia and China for your younger brother?" He turned his sharp eyes on Alfred. "And _you._ We have enough conflicts to deal with in the world today without you egging on more."

"I'm not egging on anything," Al defended.

"Oh, yes, you are. You're just now trying to get me on a tangent," Arthur snapped. He looked over the tall Nation and scowled at the brown suit, the flag tie. "And I told you to wear _black, _you yank!" he snapped, waving a hand over his own attire. "We have to at least _appear_ unified for Cody's sake."

This caused the American to roll his eyes and snort. "Arthur, please. It's not like I'm taking you to the prom." The Nation irked slightly to the left and rubbed the his side of his face. "Ow, shit."

Arthur narrowed his look as Matthew walked over, his face spelling out his concern. "Um, Al?" the twin questioned.

"I got a cramp," he muttered. "I haven't eaten since noon."

"It's only three o'clock," Arthur moaned before grabbing both boys by their elbows and pulling them along out the door. "You had better make it through this presentation without that empty pit you call a stomach growling or so help me I will stuff you so full of cheeseburgers you'll never go hungry again."

"Oh, sweet. I'm holding you to that one."

* * *

Japan tugged slightly at the cuffs of his suit. This was most certainly one of his least favorite of the Western clothing his nation and people had been introduced to over the years. There was nothing decorative or formal to him when it came to these plain suits. They did nothing to help him feel uniform with the others who wore them.

Or, perhaps, his frustrations were being unfairly juxtaposed to the voice in his head.

He liked the Western Nations and their people. He appreciated their culture and, since he became more open to them, they more than accepted his own. They were his economic trading partners, his close friends. Kiku liked the idea of them appreciating Japan, appreciating _him_, for what it was. They were not obligated to pleasantries as the Asian siblings were.

China was not so sheltered from the European nations and their 'kin' either. Japan knew this, as did most of the world. He had his borders opened to them longer than almost any other Asian country.

But Kiku knew his older brother well. For all his formalities toward the rest of the world, Wang Yao did not _trust _them as Kiku or Im Yong Soo did. The only friend in them he found was in Russia, but that had become strained as ideologies changed.

It worried Kiku that his brother was perpetually growing this distrust in the rest of the world. The surprise meeting earlier had done little to change that.

He entered the orator room, glancing at the small stage as well as the sloping steps which led to the several rows of desks that would soon have nations occupying them. He grimaced slightly at its openness and knew that soon enough it would be filled.

Every nation had his or her concerns about this new element and its highly destructive properties. It was going to be a madhouse.

* * *

[Notes]

*Someone please tell me they also have a constant bet going between friends over whose phone is ringing~  
*Nebraska is the home of Kool-Aid. We really didn't realize this until we started researching for this fic so, surprises! (And no offense to any Nebraskans. We swear, we mean nothing by our constant ignorance of Nebraskan economics). Recall that this is an AU and so this does not reflect the current state of Nebraska's economy which, form what I hear, has been fairing pretty well.  
*WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction

**Right: **Shorter notes this time, eh? Well, there's at least that. Trimmed some extra scenes in this chapter to keep it from being overbearing. I've had to do that with a lot of my story arcs because I don't know when to stfu ._. I'll probably collect them along with some of Left's misc. scenes (we have a bunch from before this stuff even happens because we're CRAZY like that) and post them on LJ or something. We're eventually going to be putting profiles and what not up there anyway~ Fun stuff, man. Fun Stuff!

Please Review!


	7. World Affairs: 3 of 3

_Oh, wow! Thank you SO very much to _**Wirewolf**,** firr . verdepol**_,_** ChaoticXXHearts**_, and _**Dontmezwitme**_ for the just wonderful reviews! ;_; Seriously, guys. (And thanks for pointing out some of the problems with the notes, _**Wirewolf. **_That really helps a lot! I'll be sure to fix those ;) )  
_

**Right:** Uh, well. I'm, I'm doing better! About a week in between this time!

* * *

World Affairs: Part Three of Three

The blackness surrounded the city so thickly that Jefferson could hardly see his hand in front of his face. He released a cry to the people on the streets below, telling them to get inside and stop honking their damn car horns, but it was mute even to his ears.

Screeching through the streets, the wind tore into everything. Glass was breaking, trees snapping like twigs, and in a flash of lightning the Statesman could have sworn he saw a billboard flung into the side of a building.

As the burning cold reached the pit of his stomach, the boy doubled over, kept up only by resting his shoulder against the railing of the balcony. He moaned, again a noise felt more in his throat than in his ears. It hurt. Damn it, it _hurt_.

These storms had been hitting the southern coast of the sunshine state for weeks but this, this was just _unnatural. _Its force, the sheer volume of the blasts felt like they were crushing the bones in his hips and legs. It was a constant, unrelenting pounding into his body.

He felt strong arms wrap around him and yank him into the opened door of the apartment. In his daze, Jefferson did not even bother to look up and see who it was leading him through the complex and down the winding stairs toward safety. His head was still spinning and he was wondering if his twin sister was feeling the same torture as him.

When he felt his legs about to give up beneath him, Jefferson leaned closer to the pale woman. It felt warm in her arms.

"Thank you," he muttered as the world began to go black. "Thank you, Ms. Smith. Good luck with your election campaign."

With that, the embodiment of Northern California felt his consciousness slip through his own fingers like water.

* * *

"You are not coming to the meeting then?"

Ludwig had had just about enough of his brother's self-pitying these past few days. It was not as if Germany had _forgotten _about Prussia or Bismark or, and God forbid, Frederick II. The government had simply thought it best to highlight more _recent _aspects of its history. There was no need to dig up bad memories about the World Wars. Ludwig couldn't have agreed more with that.

Gilbert took it personally, though. Ludwig should have known he would. Alas, he had been caught off guard.

"Oh, just piss off," the red-eyed brother hissed. "I'm feeding my chicks."

The yellow birds chirped happily at the concept and fluttered to the ground in anticipation of some thrown seed. All with the exception of his favorite, Gilbird, who rested securely on the former Nation's head.

"Ve~" came a familiar noise from the hall.

The German sighed and rubbed his eyes. He was just so unsure of what to do with Prussia anymore. Gilbert, for all intents and purposes, did not exist. But, really, had he ever? Land alone obviously was not a factor in their kind's existence, as even in Prussia's own history he had first been a Teutonic Knight, not _land based. _

"Oh, look, your husband," the Prussian sneered. "Or is it not legal anymore because the _Pact of Steel_ no longer exists?"

"I am not married to Italy," Ludwig responded flatly. "And it is not as though the Pact of Steel no longer exists, it happened. It is just no longer focused on in education. And so does _Preußen_—"

"Ve, Ludwig!" Feliciano called out before sticking his head into the door. The Italian man grinned happily as he sat eyes on Germany, something the German only wished he could return with half the enthusiasm. "So unlike you not to be telling me I'm late for a meeting. If you don't hurry we won't get seats by Nihon! And you'll be on time instead of early."

_"Ja, _I know," Ludwig responded before looking to his brother once more, his heart aching as Gilbert again refused to even look at him. "Gilbert, you are half of this Union. You need to have as much in put in the meeting as I do. I need your military insight and—"

"I said _piss off, _West," Prussia hissed. "I don't have in put in the Union. Why would I have in put in this meeting? You make me so mad I'll get ill. Just leave."

For a moment, Germany did not move. He waited for his brother to calm down, to speak about this issue in more calmed terms, but it did not happen. Gilbert walked through the door that connected their offices and slammed it behind his chicks, rattling the frame so much that the old sign (Ludwig told him to replace that damn thing) fell off.

Not sure whether he was more hurt or enraged by his older brother's acts, Ludwig released the growl he had been suppressing. This caused a whimper behind him and he remembered that his friend was in the room.

Feliciano was trembling. "Super scary," he said through chattering teeth before looking to Ludwig more directly. "Ve, Ludwig … are you okay? It sounded as though you and Gilbert were fighting."

"That is because ve vere," Ludwig sighed. "I passed an education reform bill and he believes I am erasing him from our shared history now. I did not think it vould upset him so much else I vould have not approved it."

"He needs some good pasta to make him feel better," Italy summed up before looking to Ludwig. "But Prussia always says mean things. How can you tell he is upset this time?"

"Because he has not called himself 'Avesome,'" he responded before grabbing his suitcase and making his way toward the hallway door. "But vhy are you running late, Feliciano?"

The shorter man quickly caught up with the German as they made their way through the halls to the orator room.

"I was cooking in the kitchen because I did not like the food served at the hotel for breakfast," Italy said with his placid smile never leaving his relaxed, simple features.

"Of course," Ludwig sighed.

"I got so carried away by my cooking, I began to wonder if I was going to miss the meeting," he continued, his stride now becoming a near skip in order to compensate for the German's longer steps. "Then I said to myself 'Germany would not let me be late for a meeting like this!' So I kept cooking. And now I'm almost late! Lesson learned. Say, Ludwig, you're moving very fast. It's kinda hard to keep up!"

"I realize I am moving fast. I vant to get to the meeting before it starts," Ludwig responded quickly.

"Then can't we run?"

"That vould be undignified," he sighed.

They reached the doors and found them opened to the room which was already filling with the other nations. Ludwig groaned and Italy sighed a long, willowy sigh.

"I hope Nihon thought to save us some seats."

"Our seats are reserved," Ludwig reminded his friend as they began to maneuver through the crowd. "Ve are members of the Group of Eight and Group of Tventy."

"Ve, _Gruppo di ventotto."_

"You are being ridiculous, _Italien."_

They crossed the aisles until they reached the bottom of the arena. Germany scanned the table for their name cards and, sure enough, there they were with the other members of the G8. Romano already sat at his seat beneath the shared label of _Repubblica Italiana. _He was also glaring daggers at Ludwig, though, for the life of him, Germany could not recall what he could have done to earn it.

Knowing his closest ally's brother, it wouldn't take much.

_"Guten abden, _Lovino," Ludwig attempted as he took the seat marked _Bundesrepublik Deutschland_ beside Feliciano, ignoring the empty seat separating him from Japan.

_"Lasciami in pace, _Kraut," Romano snapped angrily before looking back to the empty stage. He then released his horrified yell as Feliciano wrapped his arms around the angrier Italian and began to attempt hug therapy with him again. "Let go of me, you smell like old sausage! Veneziano!"

Sighing in defeat, Ludwig turned and looked to Kiku. "Evening, Japan. I am glad we have not seemed to miss much."

"Hai, you did not," the other nation responded stoically. However, Kiku turned to face him more directly and grew a small, put upon frown. "Ludwig-san, it is very unlike you to not be here sooner. I was growing concerned."

"I have had a long morning, Kiku," the German responded before rubbing his face. He could feel this shift of Japan's gaze from his shoulders to the empty seat alongside him.

"Ve, Gilbert is unhappy, _Nihon," _Italy piped up after being shoved away by Romano. "It was scary. I saw it all. But really, I only saw half. But that half was scary."

To this, Kiku sighed and turned his head slight to the row behind them, the row for members of the G20 who did not occupy the front row with the G8. He frowned and then looked back to the stage. "Brothers can leave one emotionally drained. You have my sympathies, Ludwig-san."

Ludwig frowned and looked to Feliciano who was already looking to him for a suggestion on the situation. Nothing came to mind for either of them.

They simply watched as America and the United Kingdom entered the doors last and the elder made his way to the podium to begin the meeting. Germany furrowed his brow and brought a hand to his mouth as he watched them. There was something tense on the stage and it was not just the situation with Australia.

The dichotomy shared by the former brothers was explosive, anyone who knew the two Nations could have told that. But as the United Kingdom dove deeper into the introduction and his well-prepared speech, it became apparent to Ludwig that it was not him that was the cause of this strange aura.

Instead, Ludwig focused on America who seemed to be having a nervous tic. This was odd.

For one thing, America never got nervous.

* * *

Like the other members of the G8, Canada had a seat reserved for him with the marker of his official title scrawled on it. He rarely sat in it, though.

No one ever bothered him about his choice, more than likely because they never noticed his absent presence. He did not complain, though. He never did. Instead he made his way toward the section of countries where many of the Caribbean and Latin American countries sat.

He was never sure why but Matt was rarely forgotten by these countries. Occasionally they would mistake him for Alfred and therefore attack him, verbally or physically, for things his rambunctious brother did but they soon recalled his identity afterward.

Matt was also coming to this area for strategic purposes. Al and Arthur would both work hard to convince the G8 and G20 to be more gracious toward their unfortunate little brother, so other than respectfully request audience with France there wasn't much for Canada to work with there.

He _could _gather support from these other, less celebrated countries he had close ties with, though. He just had to remind them that Australia was as much Canada's brother as he was Britain or America. Those two were not very popular in the formerly colonized countries to say the least …

"Yo, Canada," a familiar, gruff voice beckoned from the section of seats.

Matt smiled politely at the Cuban. "I hope it's okay if I sit with you guys."

"Sure thing," he spoke up before any of the other nations could think to protest it (if they would, that is). Cuba then slid over slightly, inadvertently uprooting Bahamas and Jamaica. "Although I don't know why you never want to sit up there in your fancy seat. You could probably see better there than up here, amigo."

To this the blond Nation shrugged and took his corner seat beside his close friend. "That's what I'm wearing my glasses for."

"Is it your brother? He giving you problems?"

Canada shook his head. "No, nothing like that at all. We've gotten along better working on this project for Australia than we have in years," he admitted. "And Al's never been that bad."

This caused the Cuban to snort. The island nation shook his head. "He might be your twin, amigo, but don't forget that he can be a mean _hijo de puta_ when he wants to be."

Well, the twin couldn't deny that.

Instead, Matthew remained silent and, out of respect for their friendship, Carlos nodded to himself and looked forward to the stage below. Matt heard him give a low, disapproving sound with the other Latin American Nations as Matt's brothers came across the stage to start the presentation but, otherwise said nothing more on the matter.

Just like when he was a young colony, Matt looked attentively at Arthur. Fortunately, very unlike their colonized days, Alfred was actually doing his best not to distract.

"Good evening," Arthur almost muttered as he straightened his papers on the podium and plugged in the presentation feed he had been working on for months. "I am sure you all know why we are here, and why this matter is of the utmost importance for us to discuss."

"Yeah," muttered someone behind Matt, Haiti he thought. "Another British kid at it again."

Matt sighed. He was used to it.

"It is an unfortunate matter," Arthur continued, his tone thick with age, experience, and a bit of sadness. "It is one we all wish to never experience for ourselves, the conquest of a Nation's government over our trust in our own people. No one wants to be taken by surprise, not in this way. Not in the way Australia was blindsided."

Arthur continued but Matt found himself distracted by a general unrest in the audience. It was accented by Cuba's, _"¿Qué diablos está haciendo?"_

The northern country looked to his friend for a moment before glancing back to the stage. His eyes fell to Arthur by default before slowly making their way to Arthur's right side where his twin stood. It made Matt blink a few times in surprise before leaning forward.

Alfred's head kept jerking to the side in strange convulsions, as if turning on its own before its owner could properly move it back to its rightful place. His mouth was in an uncharacteristic frown and flinching in the corners as fast as the twitch of a rabbit's nose. Sweat was beading his brother's forehead and it looked as though the Nation was only standing still because he had no idea what to do.

"What's going on with you, Al?" Matt muttered just about the time his twin began to bend his knees and lean forward slightly.

America cupped his hands over his mouth and screwed his eyes tightly shut before giving a rattling cough. The rest of the conference room was no longer silent, and Arthur was no longer giving his spill.

The British Isles turned and, forgetting the microphone on his jacket, muttered, "What the bloody hell are you doing back there?"

_"Fuck," _Al responded before crashing face first into the floor, completely unconscious.

Nations were suddenly panicking, everyone raising out of their seats and yelling loudly, mostly in their native tongues, while Canada merely sat frozen in his seat, taking in the world for a moment before lunging into the walk way. He was nearly to the stage where Arthur, Kiku, and Ludwig had already begun trying to wake his brother when he heard screams.

He glanced over to see that Mexico was now flat on the floor as well, along with several of the neighboring Latin countries he had just been sitting with. Then Peru dropped.

"Oh, my god," Matt said breathlessly before racing to the stage, sweat beginning to slick down the hair resting on his neck. He looked over his unconscious brother with a gut wrenching feeling in his stomach.

_"Mathieu?" _asked a familiar voice that Canada didn't even have to turn around and recognize as his colonizer's. _"Mon cher, _you do not look so good."

Matt coughed and grabbed his chest. "No. I don't feel good either," he muttered before closing his eyes.

* * *

The younger Nation frowned at her brother, tossing her head to the side as she watched him intently. True, her recovery had not taken as long as his, and a Nation shouldn't take as long as their human civilians to recover from injuries, but it all still struck her as odd.

Australia himself struck her as odd.

"Do you think this'll blow over?" the Principality of Wy questioned as she tapped her fingers against her cheek.

"Aye," her brother responded as he lowered to his haunches and held out a finger for the tiny joey before him to sniff.

Cody got an unusual look on his face as the timid creature reached out and nibbled lovingly at him. He was always such a sucker for wildlife, particularly those he took charge of under his own nation. Many would call the continent's creatures strange or unusual, but the Nation loved each of them, from dingo to platypus.

Bludger, angry and jealous as ever, clung to the Australian's hat and snarled at the baby roo, earning him a distrustful look from the mother nearby.

"I hope she kicks you in the head," Wy snorted as she drew in her notebook. Her brown eyes occasionally glanced up from the white paper to re-analyze the scene she was hoping to capture.

"Oi, Sheila, you're such a mean thing when you need to be," Cody laughed as he finally patted the joey on the head and let him scamper off to his mother. He sighed and stood up, looking over the small, pathetic enclosure that had become the sort of make-shift reserve in the past few months.

He frowned and folded his arms gingerly over a still burning chest. It made him think of his poor Outback.

"I lost so many," he sighed. "Roos used to be such a problem, Wy. Now I wish I had ten thousand more."

The girl did not respond, though she shook her head. Of course. Of course _that _would be what got to Cody in the end. The lives of his animals and, hidden beneath what some would call superficial grief, all those human lives. Australia may not have been the quickest to draw or the sharpest in the shed (damn him for that blasted driveway), but it was hard to find a Nation who felt more intense love for the people, the wild, and the spirit of his land.

"You'll be able to rebuild," she reminded him. "You've got help, you don't have to do anything on your own."

"I'll have scars," he responded, more to himself than to her. He was thumbing a small part of his chest left exposed by his shirt. Yet, she knew these were not the scars he was talking about. "And I just don't know how much help it'll be."

"Little faith in America?" she asked.

He laughed, a wild grin finally returning to its proper spot. "Er, no. Not exactly."

"I have little," she admitted with a joking grin. She folded up her notebook and tucked her sketching pen behind her ear. Swinging her legs around the rock she had been sitting on, she lightly shifted to her feet and made her way to her brother. "He's a bit of nong."

"He's not a bad one," the Aussie reminded her before reaching over and yanking her close, rubbing her head roughly despite her protests. "Thanks, you beaut."

Finally growling and shoving off of him, Sheila rubbed her head. "For what?"

"Roughin' it out with me," he said with a bit of frailty coming through his stupid smile. "You don't know what it means to me."

She shrugged. "Make a good fist, Cody. It'll be over soon enough. Then things will be normal."

This caused him to frown.

Before they could continue, however, they were interrupted by the flinging open of the back gate. They glanced back and took notice of the Governor-General of Australia himself. It caused both nations to stiffen and Cody to grow a bit of an anxious look on his face. Wy grabbed his hand supportively.

She wasn't sure if her older brother could take bad news again.

"Any word from the conference, Prime Minister?" he asked hopefully.

Prime Minister Jordan stopped, looked around the reservation. "What are you doing here, Cody?"

"Reconnecting with the wild, Sir," Australia reasoned. "Your boys won't let me go too far out in the real world, it's as close as I get to my other residents." He nodded to the group of roos who had gathered curiously only a few feet away. He smiled softly at them, as if to reassure them.

"Alright then," the boss responded, finding it best not to press the issue any further. "I am afraid that we won't be getting much aid from the conference, Cody."

This caused the Nation to blink before looking back to his Boss. He frowned.

"They already done?" he asked, a little deflated. He had hoped that his judgment would take longer with Alfred and Arthur backing him up.

"I don't know about that," muttered the leader. "But it won't last for much longer. The North American continent is being swallowed up in a super storm." Cody gaped in shock and confusion. "And … I don't think it's unconnected with what happened in the Bush."

Covering her mouth, Wy found her mind reeling. She looked to her brother and watched as his sun kissed skin became a pale white.

* * *

[Notes]

*Pact of Steel, 22 May 1939, yes we all know what it is tanks to Hetalia. I DO find it hilarious that it is "formally known" as the Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy. Because, y'know, it needs more clarification like that.  
*"Nihon." Japanese. "Japan. (Left and I have it in our headcanons that the former Axis members are close enough that this is Italy's "pet name" for Japan)  
*"_hijo de puta._" Spanish. "Son of a bitch."  
*"_¿Qué diablos está haciendo?_" Spanish. "What's he doing?"

**Right: **Okay, compared to the last two this is a long chapter *smack self* Terrible editing. But it's the last you'll be hearing directly from me for a bit so hopefully you can enjoy it enough to get to Left's arc, the good stuff. Thanks for sticking with me regardless!

Please Review!


	8. The Perfect Storm: 1 of 2

_Thanks to _**fiir . verdepol**_, _**ChaoticXXHearts**_, and _**LupinandHarrry** _for the reviews last chapter! _

**Left:** Hey folks! Yup, it's me finally. I know, I know; I'm letting Right do all the work for this. But not to worry! Because it's _my_ turn now. Well, sort of. See, we're trying something a little different here - you might have noticed it with our other works, but we more or less wrote this together. Actually, this is the final countdown for this story arc too... WE HOPE YOU'RE ALL PREPARED FOR WHAT COMES NEXT~!

* * *

The Perfect Storm: Part One of Two

There was something very odd about the gentle hum in the background of the room. It was not so much that it was interrupted by a familiar, rhythmic beat of a monitor, or that it echoed in the sterile quietness of what he sensed to be a fairly full room. No, these things did not bother him. Instead, what bothered America was that it was muted against the cotton that seemed to be compacted in his mind.

If he attempted to ward off the cloudiness left by heavy sedation, however, he already knew that the booming sound of millions of complaints would be splitting his head and leaving the contents in nice, mushy piles of goo.

For the time being he would allow the fullness of his thoughts and the white blotches scattered across his vision to pass. Partially for the reason of maintaining some of his sanity, but also because he honestly could not think clearly enough to draw another conclusion.

Besides, he might have needed enough sedative to knock out a bull elephant, but it still did not help those eyebrows. All … forty of them?

Blinking wearily, the nation allowed his cheek to rest on his shoulder and his eyes to rest half mast. He moved his hand in a sweeping motion at all the recognizable yet completely indistinguishable faces. "S'ow many here, again?"

"Still just the three of us, mate." Al was pretty sure it was the blur near his feet that spoke and, given by the brunette splotch that topped the talking blur, it was most likely… Cody. Not to mention the overzealous use of _mate_ could be a pretty sure give away. His half-brother patted his foot sympathetically. "Just like the last time you asked abou' five minutes ago," he said.

Alfred groaned and tried to rub at this aching head. It felt like it had been _years_ not minutes. But his limbs refused to move and more or less just twitched annoyingly under the covers he was trapped under.

"I dare say you were expecting someone a little more _important_ then?" snapped the rather short blur that could only be the very disgruntled Britain hovering somewhere between "not close" and "close enough" to Al's head.

"Not really," Alfred said with a furrow of his eyebrows and a curious glance around the very indistinguishable (yet still inhumanly white) room. "Why is everyone so… _picaso_-fied? And am I beeping?"

"It's called a heart monitor," Arthur groused with a roll of his eyes. "I believe it's there to let us know how close you are to impending doom and whatnot."

"Speakin' of which, how are ya feeling?" Cody said coming closer. "You were pretty out of it last time I asked, so I sort of dismissed it as the morphine talkin'."

He blinked a few more times as the question finally began to register in his stuffy mind. Then, for good measure, he blinked again before he settled his gaze on Cody. God, he hoped it was Cody. It would be awkward if it was … someone random. "D'you want short version … or short version?"

Something must have been comical because there were slight, breathed over laughs by … some of the blurs. Alfred began to reconsider whether or not he should try to force the drugs out of his system just so he could get a good idea of what the hell was going on in there.

"Short," Arthur responded, apparently not one of the figures laughing.

"Like shit," Alfred reasoned before laying his head straight back and feeling fairly content with his response. Very concise, he thought. Then he heard mumbling, low like a stomach growl in his right ear. He turned his head and swore he saw something there for a moment. When he narrowed his eyes and looked around the white stains obscuring his gaze, it looked almost like a mirror.

"It's me, Al. Your brother." The voice was hoarse but certainly, unmistakably Canadian. Oh, that brother of his. Since when was he psychic?

"Hi, Mattie," Al said, probably sounding just as hoarse. No, not _probably_. They sounded completely the same. Besides, you know, the accents. "You sound… like shit." _We must be pretty screwed over then. … From whatever that happened._

"Nice of you to join the waking world again," Matt said softly and, with what Al hoped was from his doing, a small smile on his face. Well. At least he _assumed_ it was a smile…

Man. This really sucked.

"Your glasses are on the bedside table," Matt said, again surprising his twin by turning the psychic works on to full alert. "Which would be half the reason you can't see."

Cody gave a wistful sigh that seemed oddly out of place. "Ah, an' the rest of that would be the drugs swimming through your system. I still don't remember half the days I spent on those in the hospital." Another sigh. "Those were the good ol' days."

Arthur gave a snort and shifted on his feet, his arms folded rigidly across his chest. "Funny, because I recall them quite clearly, _Australia_."

This brought Alfred to put upon a little pout of sorts. He was not feeling good to start things off and now he had to deal with not knowing what the heck anyone was talking about. Or, he did. Somewhere in his brain surely had that joint memory but it was inaccessible at the moment.

There was a heavy sigh and something placed upon his nose that suddenly caused the world around the persistent snowflakes to be clear and even toned in obnoxious hospital lighting. It made him blink a few times but America certainly could come to the conclusion that he preferred the blurry world to Arthur's scowl and Cody's genuinely offended gape. Beggars couldn't be choosers, though.

"Now you can see, eh?" Matthew asked with a bit of a hopeful look in his surprisingly paled, drawn out face.

"Unfortunately," Alfred responded before scowling at the other two. If he hadn't been so caught off guard by the fact that they had seemingly excluded America and Canada from the discussion, he might have been surprised by Cody's suddenly defensive and slightly more aggressive disposition. "Fine, just ignore me. I didn't want to know what the hell I was doing in here anyway."

"—you were completely unprepared for this—"

"Who the fuck prepares for atomic explosions in the—"

Matthew just blinked wearily at the two of them alongside his twin, capturing Alfred's attention once more with the mundane way he was accepting the situation. "Oh, they're just very stressed. Cody's hearing is later. Lots to be worried about, eh?"

Eyebrows disappearing into his hairline, Alfred stared at his brother. "His hearing? _Already_? How fucking long was I out for, Mattie?"

"Oh," Matthew said, his hands fidgeting in his twin's sheets. He pushed his own glasses up his nose, his eyes looking everywhere but at Al. "Ah, well, maybe a month or two, eh?"

"A _month_?" Throwing off, or, well, trying in his drug-state-of-mind (it was more like flailing like a child than anything), the sheets keeping him to his bed, Alfred wrestled to find his feet under all those layers. "God, what the hell happened? There's hardly any time left to do _anything_!"

"Whoa, Al! Relax, you can't do anything now," Matthew frowned, trying to hold his brother steady. Their struggles were, apparently, still lost to the quarreling countries just feet from them (although they had moved quite closer to each other and, despite their closeness, were yelling even _louder_ now). "No one blames you for being out – I was in here for a week or two also. The storm hit you and Mexico the hardest."

"Storm?" _Jeez, is that all that hit me_? "Why do I feel like that storm rolled in on a very large, overfilled dump-truck then?"

"It is your business to be in control of your country's affairs! I've taught you that since the first bloody day—"

"Oi! This again! How many times do I have to plead my case to you? Don't you think I'll have to do that enough already, pom?"

America settled on a distinctly dissatisfied look as he stared at the other two, giving his twin only the angles of his peripheral vision. "Hey," he moaned hoarsely. "Since when did they fight? It's supposed to be my job to yell at Arthur."

Said twin rubbed his face with a sigh. "It's been stressful, Al. Everyone's saying that the new bomb caused the super storm."

This caused the bed ridden brother's head to snap over to his brother's direction. "Storm? _Super _storm? What the hell is that supposed to mean? And why would any storm have me out for a month! I'm _the United States of America_ for crying out loud!"

Matthew rubbed his chin and frowned. "Well, it's kind of hard to explain until you get a handle of what's going on yourself, but the best we can describe is that this storm on the West Coast is sort of bringing a mega-cold front to both you and Mexico and, well, me. When it did it's caused a lot of wind damage, tornados, floods and, well, _now…"_

Alfred's eye twitched at the long pause. "And now?" he asked almost irritably.

"Let's just say it snowed in Baja California this morning," Matt responded with a frown.

(&)

"I hear Dad is up." The State of Jefferson spoke with a strange, dead twist of his voice that made him sound like he had the worst head-cold in history. With his luck, he probably did. He snapped shut a cell phone and pocketed it before turning to his sister. California, with a thick blanket wrapped snuggly around her shoulders, was perched on the very edge of the balcony of the room they got stuck in together.

One of two of them was greatly displeased about this turn of events.

"Awesome," she said, just as thickly. "D'yeah think he heard about it _snowing_ in California?"

Jefferson raised a brow at that. "It always snows in Jefferson," he said slowly. "Which is a part of California, if I'm not mistaken."

She waved her hand in dismissal. "Well, I meant _my _half. Jeez." With her back turned to him, she missed the shadow of hurt that darkened his face before he turned on his heel and quietly left the sick State to her view.

(&)

Alfred winced and rubbed his head gingerly. His head felt like it was trying to split itself in fifty very equal parts. Matthew, ever aware of his brother (somehow amongst all the ruckus in the room) stood up suddenly and turned to the quarreling nations.

"Maybe it's time to leave for a bit, eh? I mean, he's been awake ten minutes longer than he has in weeks. Too much attention might go to his head."

"Hey!"

Australia and England snapped their jaws shut almost in harmony before turning and looking at the twin nations. Their equally green eyes seemed to share a strikingly similar gaze of confusion before they parted slightly and crossed arms. Alfred couldn't help but think how funny it was to have the two of them look near identical.

"You trying to kick us out, Mattie?" Cody suddenly blurted out, not nearly as jovial as he would normally intone.

"We have just as much right to visit Alfred while he's not more a babbling idiot than usual as you do," Arthur snapped fiercely. "I've waited almost two months for him to be awake enough for me to strangle that daft head of his off! No wonder he took the hit so hard, not being homebound for almost six months!"

Despite pain, Alfred shot his tensed brother a dark glare. "You tattle tale."

"We had to come up for a reason for why you weren't waking up, Al," Matthew reasoned. "I had to be honest else the doctors wouldn't have known what to do with you. And as for you two," he said, quickly turning his attention back to England and Australia. Their eyebrows must have intimidated Canada because he almost immediately returned to his stutters. "Don't you think he needs rest? A-and maybe we should let some of the States out in the hall visit with him w-while he's awake, eh? It would just really help if you two would stop arguing…" the last began to be lost under his own sighs.

But Al, being the ever-perceptive Nation that he was, only caught on half of Matt's argument. "Wait, wait – back up. My kids are here? In the hallway? And you didn't tell me!" He paused in his half-way attempt to sit up when a thought suddenly struck him. He eyed the other nations in the room warily. "How many of them did you say were out there?"

"Not all of them," Matt said quickly with a tight smile. "Although they tried very hard to all be here."

"Thank God," Arthur grumbled, shifting his weight to his other foot. He pinned Matt with a glare. "I don't see why _I _have to leave to make room for the brats when we've been at his side this whole time, waiting for him to wake—"

"To strangle him," Cody pointed out, with a glare at their former-caretaker.

"—and we barely get to see him awake _five minutes_ before kicking us out," Arthur continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "He's held progress on everything back for weeks longer than it should have because he was a bloody wanker who wanted to get out of paperwork!"

Paperwork? Oh, yes. That part of his job. Alfred sank back into his pillow. "Hmm. Y'know, Mattie, if Pennsylvania is among the ones waiting, I should probably stick with Arthur and Cody. I mean, Iggy's old so I can fend him off if it need be—"

"Not in your current state, you git," Arthur shot him down before he could finish. He then looked intently at the Canadian twin. "I didn't see them being so anxious to get in here and watch over their father during all this time, Matthew. Did you?"

"They were avoiding you, Pom, even I knew that," Cody said with a yawn and a stretch.

"Sod off, Cody," Arthur bit back an even more ferocious growl and Alfred began to feel himself pout.

It was supposed to be _his _job to piss of Arthur. He had become an expert at it over the years! He had refined it into an art form! Cody was supposed to be the easy going occasional drunk. This whole being ignored thing was way overrated too. He was sitting right there, dammit!

It was quite similar to removing a dam blocking a dangerous, deadly, and very _loud_ flood back. Matt stood to the side and uselessly motioned for the flood—er, _states_, to help themselves in, but they wouldn't have noticed one way or another. Arthur instantly clamped his mouth shut as the true force of the wave broke in and he backed up hastily.

"Matthew," he hissed, finding the culprit behind the door. "Look at what you've done!"

"Oh, well, I guess we don't have much choice now, eh?" Matt said, sounding every bit as worn as Alfred felt. He smiled to one of the states that sounded a little louder among the crowd with a "_Hello, Uncle Matt!"_ but said nothing more.

Cody, on the other hand, seemed much more at ease with the sea of kids and chuckled as a few came over and gave him a quick hug and a chirped hello. "Aye, aye, alright it's good to see you kids too."

The majority of them ignored Arthur. Which was fine by him.

Alfred gave a 1.21 Gigawat smile to the kids as many gathered up around his bed. Tugging on the various contraptions which had managed to cling to his skin despite previous flailing, he was able to better sit up and appreciate the view. "Well, who all's here?"

"Everyone that felt up to it, Pops," York spoke up, shoving aside the minute figure of Delaware like she was a little bug to be flicked. He got a death glare from New Hampshire in response. "Oh, 'sides Penns. He's been all close to your boss since the accident to try to keep things from flying down the shitter too fast. But George—"

"Oh, Papa!" a familiar cry of a Southern Belle came tearing through the air over the clatter of twenty or so Statesmen. The blonde bombshell knocked over her northern brother and had the Nation's head her iron grips as she flung herself around him. "You've been out for so long! And in here with _him."_

About that time, America blinked and looked around his bedside, finding that the majority of his states had been pushed further away from the bedside to make room for twelve of the thirteen original colonies who were all suddenly giving a particular Englishman some nasty looks.

Arthur seemed red in the face but less so than when he had been in a yelling match with Cody. Most likely this was because, after two hundred years, he had grown used to the tension between him and Alfred's favorites. It still made _Alfred _uncomfortable, though.

They didn't seem too worried about keeping their thoughts much to themselves, either. Well, they _were_ related to Alfred after all.

"Aw, please," said one of the Thirteen that was more-or-less hovering on the outskirts of the state-pile. Maryland rolled her eyes spectacularly, but the effect was lost with her smile that was near breaking point. "He was bloody _sleeping_ the whole time, Georgie. I'd hardly call that a _horrible inconvenience_. Still though, it's nice to have you alive again, Dad."

"Yeah," piped in Rhode Island with a small twist of her mouth. "You can call off Penns now. He's driving us nuts."

There was a chorus of agreement from _all_ the states to that.

Alfred just grinned, petting Georgia's back comfortingly (or as comfortingly as he possible could all locked into his bed and whatnot). "I'm sure he's just doing my – uh, _his - _job, guys. It can't be that bad—"

There was such an apprising noise of disagreement from the Statesmen that Arthur, from somewhere in the back still looking quite peeved, clamped hands over his ears as near-fifty voices tried to out-talk each other.

Matthew and Australia just watched, bemused as their brother dealt with _his kids_ he prided so much.

"Pops, talking to him is like having someone pinch your nose closed and hold you under water," York hissed, covering New Jersey's mouth as he attempted to interject. "It's impossible! And he absolutely refuses to take even one night out. Seriously. If I could take him clubbing for _one _night I could get him with someone who could loosen that noose he calls a tie—"

"Uh, as your father figure, I think my fragile state of mind would be better off if you didn't tell me about your guys' sex lives," Alfred said with an almost pained look on his face. "That's sort of why I don't go to Oregon's house anymore."

"I've had enough of this nonsense," England muttered to himself before heading toward the door, pausing only to give a somewhat agreeable nod to Washington who greeted him with more kindness that every other present state combined.

"Hey, Uncle Oz, want a rematch?" Florida questioned as he gave a few quick jabs to Cody's shoulder. The tanned boy then smirked up at his uncle, eyes glimmering with hope.

"Only if you feel like being knocked out silly," Australia jested before messing with the young statesman's hair.

Matthew watched and fiddled with the sleeves of his sweatshirt before glancing to the exit. He debated whether or not he should stay and look over his twin but one look at the states and Australia told him that everything would be just fine if he stepped out for a moment.

But a figure angling back behind the Statesmen slipped out before he got the chance to do it himself. Frowning and suddenly curious, Matt trails after the girl as she begins pacing the floor, a cell phone glued to her ear.

"No," she snapped, trying but failing to keep her voice level. "I said _no_. I don't care what you do with the papers – burn the godforsaken things if you have to – just get _rid_ of them, alright?" Her frown deepens as she listens to the other side of the argument. "Are you _listening_? No, no, _no_, dammit I don't-" her fingers pinched the bridge of her nose as she sighed. "Yeah, I'm with Dad now. No, I'll tell him you call—" She stopped in mid-sentence, staring at her phone that gave off a low dial-tone beep.

"The sonofabitch hung up on me."

"Having troubles?"

The State of Wyoming nearly jumped out of her skin and turned with a hand over her mouth in Matthew's direction. She turned a pasty white at seeing him. "Oh, _jeez_, Uncle Matt. You weren't supposed to—was I being too loud? Oh shit, can they hear me in there?"

Frowning, Matthew raised his hands in an attempt to keep his niece at bay. He'd never been very good with dealing with his twin's kids (with a few exceptions), but he knew enough to know this was not in Wyoming's normal reactions. "Hey, no, I'm sorry for sneaking up on you. I was just surprised you left the others," he explained half-heartedly. "Are- is everything alright?"

Her cheeks were burning bright with embarrassment and she fumbled with her phone. The Canadian watched patiently as she hastily slid it into her back jean pocket.

"Things are fine," she said in that exuberant, loud voice that only Americans could intone without seeming comical or forced. Her eyes glanced over him curiously before hardening. "Why wouldn't they be?"

"I never said… they wouldn't?"

She made an annoyed, guttural sound before turning and going back to the room, her shoulders shuddering for a chill that simply was not there. Matthew found this more than a little peculiar.

* * *

[Notes]  
* Baja California is technically Mexico, we're aware, but this is all to demonstrate that the weather is sorta fubar at the time being. The mechanics of the new nuclear bombs will be explained in later arcs of the story but, for basic comprehension, we are working on the theory that this new nuclear bomb is capable of not only causing bigger, badder atomic explosions but is also able to displace hydrogen atoms around the are of impact and cause massive dehydration. And, well, all those gas and water molecules had to end up _somewhere_ so, for this story, it was a long wait before it gathered enough momentum to hit the Americas.  
*Just a recap, there's a huge difference between North and South California. Again, a reason for why Northern California has actively lobbied to become its own state (i.e., State of Jefferson).  
*England and the Original States: let's just say that in this universe, the thirteen kiddies making up Alfred's original colonies share a less than pleasurable relationship with Arthur. It goes both ways. Besides them, though, there aren't too many of the states Arthur actively fights with, just pretending to be the characteristically grumpy uncle.  
*1.21 Gigawats: ... Yes. It's a nerdy Back to the Future reference. But, hey, it's America. He'd more than approve.

**Left: **Wow, I'm so glad Right took care of those notes. I wouldn't have done nearly as good a job (read: none at all) on that. And she more or less said to leave a parting message with you all. And yet I have none! Oh, also, she called me a _Sneaky Sod_, so... Well... take that as you will. As for the next part, it should be up uuuh... Pretty soon. Everything from this point on is more or less written, so I dunno why it's taking us so long to post it. I figure it has something to do with finals in school and getting jobs and whatnot. BUT YEAH. Stay tuned, you beautiful people you.

Please Review!


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